94stranger
[The introduction to class 5 can be found at the head of class 5 set 1]
Directory of Meanings Set 3: Balance
NOTES
1) Sets 1 and 2 were concerned with the psychological situation at the two poles of extroversion and introversion. Whether or not imbalance was involved, these cards dealt with the ends of the spectrum of behaviour, not the middle. Set 3 deals with the centre, with the balance position. No unbalanced mentions apply here.
2) Each card of set 3 must therefore be considered in relation to the two polar cards of the same group: In Spirit, Clarity is the balance between Deflation and Inflation; in Will, Passion is the balance between Control and Abandon, and so on for all the set 3 cards.
19. Clarity: Group – Spirit (1 violet/purple)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Clarity/19.aspx
The image
We have a jungle scene predominantly in deep blue and pink – the colours on each side of violet. The scene is dominated by a blue tiger, seen from below, silhouetted in profile against the skyline. The blurred or indistinct vision typical of the depths of the jungle is superceded, thanks to an instance of the play of light, by a magical moment of clarity.
The meaning
Clarity is a quality of spirit, and represents the mid-point between inflation and deflation. Clarity, therefore, is seen primarily as clear-seeing in relation to oneself. This means that one has an accurate self-image, exaggerating neither ones strengths nor weaknesses.
At this time, you have a realistic view of who you are. You have been able to step back from the hurly-burly of daily life to take a dispassionate look at your situation. Like someone surveying a landscape from a high place, you benefit from a panoramic perspective. In doing so, you demonstrate one of the attributes of wisdom, for how can one act wisely without ever being able to achieve a clear view of what is needed? With clarity, you are in a position to make sound judgements of the appropriate action to take. If action is being the tiger, clarity means seeing it from outside.
20. Passion: Group – Will (2 red)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Passion/20.aspx
The image
The scene is the interior of an old-fashioned gypsy caravan, where we see a young man and woman engaging in good-natured horse-play. He is chasing his sweetheart across the bed, while she defends herself with a pillow. They are both laughing and happy. The predominant red tones of the image, together with the behaviour and demeanour of the participants, make clear that their intensions are sexual.
The meaning
Passion is a quality of will, representing the mid-point between control and abandon, and its central component is emotional intensity. In control, the emotion is inhibited; in abandon, it has become ungovernable. In passion, it flows freely, yet does not become a flood that overwhelms you.
At present, you have passion in your life. Passion is like a vehicle, driven by the most powerful engine in existence – desire. With it you can go great distances, i.e. achieve a great deal. Because you are experiencing a free flow of emotion, it is not in danger of backing up and then needing a sudden uncontrollable release, as with abandon. With passion you have energy, drive, enthusiasm and enjoyment – for love, sex, friendship, work, play, studies… Passion can take you in any direction you desire.
The one limitation is that thought cannot force passion into existence. Educators the world over have tried every stratagem that thought can devise to enlist children’s passion in support of doing what adults want from them – in vain. Passion is only from within, never from without.
21. Relation: Group – Heart (3 green)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Relation/21.aspx
The Image
A heavy-set man sits on some steps outside an old-fashioned gypsy caravan, with green hills in the background. Beside him, linking arms, is a small boy. The man rests his left hand on the shoulder of a male companion, who stands next to, and partly turned towards him. This companion has his hands in his pockets, and wears the type of headscarf, knotted at the nape of the neck, commonly associated with gypsies. The relaxed body language of both men, together with the presence of the small boy, suggests friendship.
The meaning
The balancer for Withdrawal and Invasion is Relation. Relation belongs to the Heart group, so is concerned with warmth, affection and friendship. It can be thought of as a way of being with others which avoids the extremes of both withdrawal and invasion – it is the art of being close to people.
With the card Relation, you demonstrate an ability to show warmth and affection in a way which springs from a sensitive attunement to the feelings of another and does not involve any unwanted and excessive incursion into their space. Equally, Relation has no element of retreat – it implies that you are there for the other person; that they can count on you when they need you, as you can upon them. This card also means that you express honestly, both about yourself and about your friend. You would find genuine closeness impossible if you or your friend were practicing self-concealment, or were able only to be ‘nice’ to each other.
On the other hand, a judgemental attitude also undermines friendship. Tolerance, even active enjoyment of difference is a necessary part of the ability to make friends. For instance, for a social activity-loving extrovert to be close to a society-averse introvert will require a lot of give and take on both sides.
22. Action: Group – Form (4 orange)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Action/22.aspx
The image
The image is of a semi-desert scene at sunrise. In the foreground, a Tuareg nomad is attacking a shrub with an axe, whilst in the background we see a goat-hair tent in front of which a small fire burns. Although we do not see the man’s expression clearly, his body language clearly suggests that he is very much focussed on the task in hand.
The meaningAction is the balancer for torpor and hyper-activity, so it refers to a right relation to one’s body, in the sense of correct handling of one’s physical energy. This also implies freedom from whatever forms of neurosis produce either excessive sluggishness on one side or metabolic over-activation on the other. In a wider sense, action is good use of the intelligence of the body.
You are in a position of good balance with regard to your use of physical energy. Whether this involves a rather slow, sedate form of action, or one of high energy and vigour, what you are doing is appropriate to the circumstances. Action is doing, so that you are not in the planning stage, but in the practical one, where things are actually happening. Equally, in balanced action, you are aware – you know what you are doing and why. Your actions are not being driven by unconscious impulses. You do not wash your hands again for the twentieth time, even though they are not dirty: you are not ‘acting out’, but acting.
Again, Action implies an unrestricted flow of energy: if you keep putting off making that appointment with the dentist, there is no Action. Finally, Action in the best sense is well-directed and effective – after you repair the car, it runs again; the map you buy is the one you need for your journey. Action belongs to the Form group, which is that of closeness to, and harmony with the physical world.
23. Soul: Group – Unconscious (5 indigo)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Soul/23.aspx
The Image
The image of Soul is that of a vortex, deeper blue at the centre, changing as it rises and expands to include lighter blues, blue-green, lime green and so on. Associated with this vortex, whether wrapped within it or curled up on its margins, are a number of figures which are clearly human, though they have no features – perhaps because we do not want to emphasise their particularity as individuals. One figure only is more identifiable – an adult female, one of whose hands cups her breast.
The meaning
Soul is the balance between Obsession and Possession, and represents right relationship with the Unconscious. Such a relationship implies a balance between the self and what is beyond the self.
You are in healthy contact with the Unconscious. This means that you are open to receiving what it has to bring you, rather than obsessively trying to impose your own agenda upon it. It also means that you retain your sense of self, so that your concern is always to integrate unconscious contents. In this way, you are not swept off balance by the force of this material. Rather than becoming too greedy or inflated, you consciously limit yourself to the amount that you can handle. For example, if you were using drugs as a passport to unconscious material, you would be incurring risks, possibly serious ones.
The card Soul may reflect your contact either with universal material, or with buried material from your own past. The distinction is only partial, because we all share so much of the psyche in any case. To know yourself is to know the world. To ‘have soul’ or be in touch with Soul means that the scope of your actions is broader than that of narrow self-interest, that your desires are deeper than the shallow ones of sensory gratification. In Soul also there is great empathy, for if I not only see but truly feel the pain of the world, how can I not also hurt?
24. Radiance: Group – Self (6 yellow)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Radiance/24.aspx
The image
It is summer. A blonde woman, wearing a green dress and white apron, stands looking out from a high place towards wheat fields, with hills beyond. She has one arm round a tree trunk and the other holds a large sunflower. Nearby, a baby lies naked on a blanket in the sun.
The meaning
Radiance is the balancer for submission and domination, which means that it involves the proper use of one’s self-vibration. Radiance is the attribute of the strong personality which does not seek to dominate.
You are asserting yourself, but not in a way which tends to override the will or freedom of others. Your strength of character is likely to be felt and admired, but you are exercising it for yourself, not to gain control over others. In Radiance, you do not feel guilty about sticking up for yourself, promoting your own interests, making clear where you stand. You let others know what is acceptable to you, and what you will not tolerate. If anyone has any idea of trying to force or manipulate you into doing what they want you to do, they had better think twice!
Radiance is about shining, and if you want to be a sunflower, the first requirement is to have your place in the sun! People tend to divide into the strong and the weak, with the former intent on taking away from the latter their living space, their freedom…and the weak conceding it. There is an urgent need for Radiance – for those who fight their own corner, are a push-over for nobody, yet have no inclination to lord it over anyone either.
25. Interchange: Group – Communication (7 blue)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Interchange/25.aspx
The image
A group, or possibly a family of musicians are playing together in the open air. The middle ground is dominated by a man and a boy, both playing drums. They are looking and listening, each responding to what the other is doing musically. In the background is an older man, perhaps the grandfather. He is sitting on what could be the root of an adjacent tree, and playing the harmonica. In the foreground we see only the arms of a fourth, apparently female figure, held aloft playing a tambourine. An air of tranquillity and enjoyment pervades the picture.
The meaning
Interchange is the balance for exhibition and inhibition. Exhibition is communication, but driven by a compulsive personal agenda; inhibition is blockage in communication. In interchange, there is an easy and natural flow to and fro.
You are in communication with one or more others. You may be using words or music, but the communication has a mental and spiritual vibration, rather than being dominated by the heart, physicality or sexuality. You may do interviews, teach adults, work in a team of scientists, play in a band. Or the interchange may be outside your work, reflecting common interests such as cars or gardening…This card shows that you know both how to talk (or play) and listen. Whether your conversations are musical or verbal, there is a sense of co-operation, in which each enriches, and is enriched by, her/his companions. Your relaxed openness means that you both teach and learn through this connection.
Unlike relation, the emphasis here is on a certain content being transmitted – the issue is not how people feel together, but what passes between them – knowledge, understanding, experience, technique… Interchange is about reciprocity, and about expressing.
26. Joy: Group – Conjugation (8 magenta)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Joy/26.aspx
The image
A woman in a red skirt and white blouse dances barefoot in a pink room. She holds her arms above her head and has castanets attached to her fingers. A man in old-fashioned breeches and white socks, and wearing a low-brimmed hat, sits to the side of her playing a fiddle. Behind the woman we see a stone fireplace, in which sits an iron cooking pot.
The meaning
Joy is the first realised (balanced) card of the magenta group. It is the place between spirit denial and will denial, where there IS no denial. Like all the magenta cards except the two denials, Joy is a card whose substance can be realised only fully in a future order of existence. What we can experience now as joy is only a fitful shadow of what will later become possible in manifestation (the ‘Earth plane’).
You are experiencing that particular state which we call Joy. It contains within it elements of such feelings as exuberance, gaiety, wonder and delight. It also has spirit content: to be joyful is to experience a feeling of rightness: the sense of participation in an all-pervasive harmony to existence, beyond the self-absorption of normal awareness. These times of Joy are what you need to give meaning to your whole existence. Life offers possibilities beyond work, making money and becoming powerful or famous. You are experiencing such a time, a moment of true ‘en-joyment’. Authentic Joy is a gift – you cannot get to this; but it can come to you.
Joy is the balance for clarity and passion, such that to be joyful in the fullest sense is to incorporate completely the qualities of both. The shadow which at present exists in Joy is cast over it by the pain of existence, into which we shall inevitably fall back. The Joy to come will be unrestrained and unrestricted, because untainted by denial in ourselves or the world. For the time being, perhaps the purest expression of Joy – at least emotionally – that we are likely to see is at moments in the lives of small children.
27. Tides: Group – Quest-ion? (9 grey/brown for white)
[Notice of intention to withhold information.
We have decided to withhold the detailed meanings for all the cards of group 9 until we can publish all this material commercially. We are really sorry for the inconvenience this may cause. See 9 Ebb (set 1) for details
Directory of Meanings Set 3: Balance
NOTES
1) Sets 1 and 2 were concerned with the psychological situation at the two poles of extroversion and introversion. Whether or not imbalance was involved, these cards dealt with the ends of the spectrum of behaviour, not the middle. Set 3 deals with the centre, with the balance position. No unbalanced mentions apply here.
2) Each card of set 3 must therefore be considered in relation to the two polar cards of the same group: In Spirit, Clarity is the balance between Deflation and Inflation; in Will, Passion is the balance between Control and Abandon, and so on for all the set 3 cards.
19. Clarity: Group – Spirit (1 violet/purple)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Clarity/19.aspx
The image
We have a jungle scene predominantly in deep blue and pink – the colours on each side of violet. The scene is dominated by a blue tiger, seen from below, silhouetted in profile against the skyline. The blurred or indistinct vision typical of the depths of the jungle is superceded, thanks to an instance of the play of light, by a magical moment of clarity.
The meaning
Clarity is a quality of spirit, and represents the mid-point between inflation and deflation. Clarity, therefore, is seen primarily as clear-seeing in relation to oneself. This means that one has an accurate self-image, exaggerating neither ones strengths nor weaknesses.
At this time, you have a realistic view of who you are. You have been able to step back from the hurly-burly of daily life to take a dispassionate look at your situation. Like someone surveying a landscape from a high place, you benefit from a panoramic perspective. In doing so, you demonstrate one of the attributes of wisdom, for how can one act wisely without ever being able to achieve a clear view of what is needed? With clarity, you are in a position to make sound judgements of the appropriate action to take. If action is being the tiger, clarity means seeing it from outside.
20. Passion: Group – Will (2 red)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Passion/20.aspx
The image
The scene is the interior of an old-fashioned gypsy caravan, where we see a young man and woman engaging in good-natured horse-play. He is chasing his sweetheart across the bed, while she defends herself with a pillow. They are both laughing and happy. The predominant red tones of the image, together with the behaviour and demeanour of the participants, make clear that their intensions are sexual.
The meaning
Passion is a quality of will, representing the mid-point between control and abandon, and its central component is emotional intensity. In control, the emotion is inhibited; in abandon, it has become ungovernable. In passion, it flows freely, yet does not become a flood that overwhelms you.
At present, you have passion in your life. Passion is like a vehicle, driven by the most powerful engine in existence – desire. With it you can go great distances, i.e. achieve a great deal. Because you are experiencing a free flow of emotion, it is not in danger of backing up and then needing a sudden uncontrollable release, as with abandon. With passion you have energy, drive, enthusiasm and enjoyment – for love, sex, friendship, work, play, studies… Passion can take you in any direction you desire.
The one limitation is that thought cannot force passion into existence. Educators the world over have tried every stratagem that thought can devise to enlist children’s passion in support of doing what adults want from them – in vain. Passion is only from within, never from without.
21. Relation: Group – Heart (3 green)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Relation/21.aspx
The Image
A heavy-set man sits on some steps outside an old-fashioned gypsy caravan, with green hills in the background. Beside him, linking arms, is a small boy. The man rests his left hand on the shoulder of a male companion, who stands next to, and partly turned towards him. This companion has his hands in his pockets, and wears the type of headscarf, knotted at the nape of the neck, commonly associated with gypsies. The relaxed body language of both men, together with the presence of the small boy, suggests friendship.
The meaning
The balancer for Withdrawal and Invasion is Relation. Relation belongs to the Heart group, so is concerned with warmth, affection and friendship. It can be thought of as a way of being with others which avoids the extremes of both withdrawal and invasion – it is the art of being close to people.
With the card Relation, you demonstrate an ability to show warmth and affection in a way which springs from a sensitive attunement to the feelings of another and does not involve any unwanted and excessive incursion into their space. Equally, Relation has no element of retreat – it implies that you are there for the other person; that they can count on you when they need you, as you can upon them. This card also means that you express honestly, both about yourself and about your friend. You would find genuine closeness impossible if you or your friend were practicing self-concealment, or were able only to be ‘nice’ to each other.
On the other hand, a judgemental attitude also undermines friendship. Tolerance, even active enjoyment of difference is a necessary part of the ability to make friends. For instance, for a social activity-loving extrovert to be close to a society-averse introvert will require a lot of give and take on both sides.
22. Action: Group – Form (4 orange)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Action/22.aspx
The image
The image is of a semi-desert scene at sunrise. In the foreground, a Tuareg nomad is attacking a shrub with an axe, whilst in the background we see a goat-hair tent in front of which a small fire burns. Although we do not see the man’s expression clearly, his body language clearly suggests that he is very much focussed on the task in hand.
The meaningAction is the balancer for torpor and hyper-activity, so it refers to a right relation to one’s body, in the sense of correct handling of one’s physical energy. This also implies freedom from whatever forms of neurosis produce either excessive sluggishness on one side or metabolic over-activation on the other. In a wider sense, action is good use of the intelligence of the body.
You are in a position of good balance with regard to your use of physical energy. Whether this involves a rather slow, sedate form of action, or one of high energy and vigour, what you are doing is appropriate to the circumstances. Action is doing, so that you are not in the planning stage, but in the practical one, where things are actually happening. Equally, in balanced action, you are aware – you know what you are doing and why. Your actions are not being driven by unconscious impulses. You do not wash your hands again for the twentieth time, even though they are not dirty: you are not ‘acting out’, but acting.
Again, Action implies an unrestricted flow of energy: if you keep putting off making that appointment with the dentist, there is no Action. Finally, Action in the best sense is well-directed and effective – after you repair the car, it runs again; the map you buy is the one you need for your journey. Action belongs to the Form group, which is that of closeness to, and harmony with the physical world.
23. Soul: Group – Unconscious (5 indigo)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Soul/23.aspx
The Image
The image of Soul is that of a vortex, deeper blue at the centre, changing as it rises and expands to include lighter blues, blue-green, lime green and so on. Associated with this vortex, whether wrapped within it or curled up on its margins, are a number of figures which are clearly human, though they have no features – perhaps because we do not want to emphasise their particularity as individuals. One figure only is more identifiable – an adult female, one of whose hands cups her breast.
The meaning
Soul is the balance between Obsession and Possession, and represents right relationship with the Unconscious. Such a relationship implies a balance between the self and what is beyond the self.
You are in healthy contact with the Unconscious. This means that you are open to receiving what it has to bring you, rather than obsessively trying to impose your own agenda upon it. It also means that you retain your sense of self, so that your concern is always to integrate unconscious contents. In this way, you are not swept off balance by the force of this material. Rather than becoming too greedy or inflated, you consciously limit yourself to the amount that you can handle. For example, if you were using drugs as a passport to unconscious material, you would be incurring risks, possibly serious ones.
The card Soul may reflect your contact either with universal material, or with buried material from your own past. The distinction is only partial, because we all share so much of the psyche in any case. To know yourself is to know the world. To ‘have soul’ or be in touch with Soul means that the scope of your actions is broader than that of narrow self-interest, that your desires are deeper than the shallow ones of sensory gratification. In Soul also there is great empathy, for if I not only see but truly feel the pain of the world, how can I not also hurt?
24. Radiance: Group – Self (6 yellow)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Radiance/24.aspx
The image
It is summer. A blonde woman, wearing a green dress and white apron, stands looking out from a high place towards wheat fields, with hills beyond. She has one arm round a tree trunk and the other holds a large sunflower. Nearby, a baby lies naked on a blanket in the sun.
The meaning
Radiance is the balancer for submission and domination, which means that it involves the proper use of one’s self-vibration. Radiance is the attribute of the strong personality which does not seek to dominate.
You are asserting yourself, but not in a way which tends to override the will or freedom of others. Your strength of character is likely to be felt and admired, but you are exercising it for yourself, not to gain control over others. In Radiance, you do not feel guilty about sticking up for yourself, promoting your own interests, making clear where you stand. You let others know what is acceptable to you, and what you will not tolerate. If anyone has any idea of trying to force or manipulate you into doing what they want you to do, they had better think twice!
Radiance is about shining, and if you want to be a sunflower, the first requirement is to have your place in the sun! People tend to divide into the strong and the weak, with the former intent on taking away from the latter their living space, their freedom…and the weak conceding it. There is an urgent need for Radiance – for those who fight their own corner, are a push-over for nobody, yet have no inclination to lord it over anyone either.
25. Interchange: Group – Communication (7 blue)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Interchange/25.aspx
The image
A group, or possibly a family of musicians are playing together in the open air. The middle ground is dominated by a man and a boy, both playing drums. They are looking and listening, each responding to what the other is doing musically. In the background is an older man, perhaps the grandfather. He is sitting on what could be the root of an adjacent tree, and playing the harmonica. In the foreground we see only the arms of a fourth, apparently female figure, held aloft playing a tambourine. An air of tranquillity and enjoyment pervades the picture.
The meaning
Interchange is the balance for exhibition and inhibition. Exhibition is communication, but driven by a compulsive personal agenda; inhibition is blockage in communication. In interchange, there is an easy and natural flow to and fro.
You are in communication with one or more others. You may be using words or music, but the communication has a mental and spiritual vibration, rather than being dominated by the heart, physicality or sexuality. You may do interviews, teach adults, work in a team of scientists, play in a band. Or the interchange may be outside your work, reflecting common interests such as cars or gardening…This card shows that you know both how to talk (or play) and listen. Whether your conversations are musical or verbal, there is a sense of co-operation, in which each enriches, and is enriched by, her/his companions. Your relaxed openness means that you both teach and learn through this connection.
Unlike relation, the emphasis here is on a certain content being transmitted – the issue is not how people feel together, but what passes between them – knowledge, understanding, experience, technique… Interchange is about reciprocity, and about expressing.
26. Joy: Group – Conjugation (8 magenta)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Joy/26.aspx
The image
A woman in a red skirt and white blouse dances barefoot in a pink room. She holds her arms above her head and has castanets attached to her fingers. A man in old-fashioned breeches and white socks, and wearing a low-brimmed hat, sits to the side of her playing a fiddle. Behind the woman we see a stone fireplace, in which sits an iron cooking pot.
The meaning
Joy is the first realised (balanced) card of the magenta group. It is the place between spirit denial and will denial, where there IS no denial. Like all the magenta cards except the two denials, Joy is a card whose substance can be realised only fully in a future order of existence. What we can experience now as joy is only a fitful shadow of what will later become possible in manifestation (the ‘Earth plane’).
You are experiencing that particular state which we call Joy. It contains within it elements of such feelings as exuberance, gaiety, wonder and delight. It also has spirit content: to be joyful is to experience a feeling of rightness: the sense of participation in an all-pervasive harmony to existence, beyond the self-absorption of normal awareness. These times of Joy are what you need to give meaning to your whole existence. Life offers possibilities beyond work, making money and becoming powerful or famous. You are experiencing such a time, a moment of true ‘en-joyment’. Authentic Joy is a gift – you cannot get to this; but it can come to you.
Joy is the balance for clarity and passion, such that to be joyful in the fullest sense is to incorporate completely the qualities of both. The shadow which at present exists in Joy is cast over it by the pain of existence, into which we shall inevitably fall back. The Joy to come will be unrestrained and unrestricted, because untainted by denial in ourselves or the world. For the time being, perhaps the purest expression of Joy – at least emotionally – that we are likely to see is at moments in the lives of small children.
27. Tides: Group – Quest-ion? (9 grey/brown for white)
[Notice of intention to withhold information.
We have decided to withhold the detailed meanings for all the cards of group 9 until we can publish all this material commercially. We are really sorry for the inconvenience this may cause. See 9 Ebb (set 1) for details
