2 Batons - how may it be read?

Outside of a specific context, twos often indicate (for me) a balancing that is either taking place of is required.

In opening the thread for the Ace of Batons in this series, Moonbow* made important mention that in that card, "It's a living branch, freshly cut from the tree, showing its open wounds [...]". In the ensuing card (the 3 Batons), I suggested that (for myself at any rate) it calls to mind "the sigil or seal used for Christ [...]: 'I' & 'X' overlayed".

This card, the 2 Batons, stands between these two rather 'vibrant' cards - vibrant, at least, in their own peculiar ways.

Let's have a look at it, not as a 'compare' thread, but in order to see how it may be read:
There are floral emergences on all sides. If anything, perhaps this may lead to a questioning as to how all this new growth may need to be balanced or pruned in order for the whole plant to further develop in a wholesome manner. Yet, at the same time, the whole seems well cared for already.

In a reading, I may question whether there are engagements that the situation-at-hand needs to balance, needs to evaluate, or needs to be more properly apportioned.

As cross-purposes, perhaps?

There seems to be healthy growth, a flourishing or even a burst of energy arising from the intersection of two things - equally matched - with neither dominating the other. I really like the red colors in this card which adds to the feeling of energy. I could see sexual passion being sparked by two equally-matched people. Or, two ideas clashing with each other with force but generating lots of potential material. In brainstorming this is like saying: "How many new products can you imagine by putting a giraffe and a clothes hanger together?"

Mary

I realize I may be labeled a simplisticist for saying this, but an X on one's path means 'not this way' (to go on would be to be at cross-purposes with your goal) and expresses the wisdom of those who went before. For I take the 2 of Batons as defined by the book Bahir, where it is called Wisdom. And I suggest it is called this because, being departure from Unity on the round (beginning and end being linked, sayeth Sefer Yetzirah), it constitutes the wisdom to return (to whence it departed). An X -- two crossed staves -- would mean, "Go this way and you will not return."

But then whaduaino. (Aren't the flowers just for decoration?)

Paul Marteau suggests (in very rough translation, corrections welcomed):

"The 2 of Batons expresses the balanced concentration of energies of the matter, being (re)solved in [the] potentials of elementary forces and harmoniously laid out for a future blossoming. . . . it represents an interior potential which tends to open out."

If I understand it rightly, Marteau thinks, as a 2 (being early in the sequence), this card is about potentials converging and sending out possibilities that may come to fruition later on.

Mary

The words I associate with 2 all seem to be in this card.

It shows a reflection, pairing, contrariness, coming together, division, uniting.

I think of a baton as an active tool, one which is used for pointing, directing, fighting, or using in an authoritive way.

Amongst the various ways that this can be read it could also be seen as coming to a realisation or making a commitment towards a situation. No longer being just one with no one or nothing else to consider, but moving outside of the self, towards something new. It's that phase which comes after the standstill, and before the growth.

Great Kenji card there!

Moonbow* said:

The words I associate with 2 all seem to be in this card.

It shows a reflection, pairing, contrariness, coming together, division, uniting.

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May I criticise, just slightly? In my view, reflection depends upon there being a third term, the mirror: water (reflection in the Narcissus myth) is the third element, and it transfers air or thought from within to without (i.e. manifests it in external reality), where it counterbalances the fire or spirit that remains within (since it is omnipresent anyway and need not move from its original seat).

On the contrary, 2's two terms have just become distinct from one another, so to speak, and are seeking balance, n'est ce pas? So it does represent 'pairing, contrariness, . . . division,' but it requires a third term in order to 'com[e] together' (meaning to project 2 onto external reality and thus make it co-extensive with 1 or unity), and it is already 'unit[ed]', at least in the sense of unified, by 1 itself: I say this last so that 'uniting' be understood in the sense of reuniting, of bringing together that which has been apart, which is essentially how you meant it anyway, I take it.

I think of a baton as an active tool, one which is used for pointing, directing, fighting, or using in an authoritive way.

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Indeed. It may well have gotten its shape from the polo-stick emblem found on Mamluk cards, though the ones here do look more like some sort of martial-arts fighting stick with blades on both ends, huh. Anyway, fire (batons being the only burnable suit-symbol and thus fire's source) is the element that is pure activity (its counterpart in physics is of course energy, photons): fire is active, air more active than passive, water more passive than active, and earth passive. (This is the origin of the concept of the four, the fifth or quintessence being the balanced state brought about by their combination.)

venicebard said:

In my view, reflection depends upon there being a third term, the mirror: water (reflection in the Narcissus myth) is the third element, and it transfers air or thought from within to without (i.e. manifests it in external reality), where it counterbalances the fire or spirit that remains within (since it is omnipresent anyway and need not move from its original seat).

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If you look at the history of number symbology I think you will find that you are in the minority - not that that makes you wrong. Eliphas Lévi illustrated his idea of the reflected image of Jehovah with two distinct parts. Usually a third unit is seen as something new generated from the two (like a child) or added to them which can bring integration and harmony or devisiveness.

In most myths, when someone sees their reflection in a pool for the first time, they see the other. For the person doing the experiencing, the pool doesn't exist in that moment - only the reflection. This may be an illusion, but isn't that the point?

Mary

I don't see reflection as involving a third substance, I see it as the image being returned or thrown back, at least in the case of this card. When you look at the card do you not see the symmetry? To me the imagery on this card shows reflection perfectly, but is not always apparent when reading it as there are many other meanings which also apply.

.. and No, I don't mean re-unite either. I mean uniting as in the coming together of two separates. I see re-uniting as involving some history, which is not how I would read this card.

In studying ancient Hebrew roots, I found something instructive (to me as well) that might be of help, especially to any who admit Kabbalah relates to tarot, but also to any who simply assemble ideas relevant to each card.

The root which yields ShNYM (shin-nun-yod-mem), cardinal number 'two', presents the following array of meanings, all interrelated:

ShNH 1. repeat, do again 2. be different from 3. alter, change, be changed; (participle) changeable, unsteady / 1. year [confirming (?) what I've said about the year's round being thought of as two halves or twins, waxing and waning] 2. produce of a year / (or ShNA) Chald. year / ShNYM 1. num. card. two 2. second time, again / ShNY (ordinal) second / ShNAN Eng. vers. (K. James) 'angels'; perhaps 'changed, glorified ones'.

One other thing:

Moonbow* said:

I don't see reflection as involving a third substance, I see it as the image being returned or thrown back, at least in the case of this card. When you look at the card do you not see the symmetry? To me the imagery on this card shows reflection perfectly, but is not always apparent when reading it as there are many other meanings which also apply.

Click to expand...

If this 2 of Batons be a reflection, then it appears you are either taking it as the upper halves of both being reflected by their bottom halves, or else as the right (or left) halves of both being reflected by their left (or right) halves. In other words, what this trump presents us with is not actual reflection (of one baton by another) but merely its appearance. I hope this helps.