94stranger
Directory of Meanings Set 5: the Fundamental Archetypes
This is the first part of set 5, containing cards 37-40; part 2 has the remainder
NOTES
1) The Fundamental Archetypes are the basic constituents of the psyche. They are the building blocks out of which everything else is constructed. They constitute set 5, which corresponds to Group 5, the Unconscious. Just as the passengers on the deck of an ocean liner hear barely if at all the engines which power the vessel, so we surmise the existence and nature of the archetypes essentially from their manifest results.
2) I have asked the cards themselves to give indications on the practical effects of these set 5 cards. In this way, we can attempt to bring them up from the realms of deep shadow and obscurity into sufficient light to enable us to discover practical divinatory meanings for them.
3) The structure of the individual entry.
Each entry begins with a description of the image; the published definition of the archetype follows, with or without some expansion; finally we focus our attention on teasing out the divinatory meanings, which we summarise at the end.
37. Conception: group - Spirit (1 violet/purple)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Conception/37.aspx
The Image
Situated within an approximate circle we have the image of a mountainous landscape which is faintly illuminated by a minimal amount of light. There are stars, one of which appears larger, but no moon. Among the mountains, the deep purple tones of the landscape are relieved by a single small red circular spot; the image does not reveal what it represents.
The archetype Conception: ‘what cannot be imagined – conceived - cannot take form; the birth of possibility; the male pillar of life.’
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines conception in various ways, including ‘the originating of something in the mind.’ Conception is the origination of the manifest universe: it is the primary activity of Spirit, the male pole. It is an indispensable ingredient for all creation, from that of the universe on down to this dictionary definition or piece of writing. Conception further means both ‘the process of becoming pregnant involving fertilisation…’ and also ‘beginning’. In choosing the name ’Conception’ for Rainring’s Spirit archetype, we had all these meanings in mind.
Divinatory meanings
In Conception, you say goodbye to something: it is the process by which you allow a thought to rise from the Unconscious and be born into awareness. And you do this in order, ultimately, to communicate it. Thought is a vibration, and to conceive something is to send this vibration out into the universe, in order to get response for yourself. Conception has an explosive quality: it is going to de-stabilise what is, and this is true of relationship as of any other area of psyche. So the divinatory meaning of Conception is associated with beginnings and also disturbance of the status quo, drama, instability, re-evaluation. The opposition to Conception comes from the unnameable source of everything. Conception, like everything else, is a duality, a coin with two sides: what is brought into being is possibility, but also limitation. A concept, if you like, can have enormously fruitful results, but at the same time, it can send everyone off in a certain direction to the detriment of all others. Ever afterwards, it will have to be taken into account by future thinkers. Conception is like the first footprint in a limitless expanse of virgin snow.
To sum up, there is something driven about Spirit, such that Conception implies that a certain quality of anarchic, unreflective, unselfconscious being is going to be replaced by direction, purpose, analysis, intentional activity…. I am reminded of the difference between the white man’s expedition into the bush and the behaviour of the blackfella (aborigine) who goes ‘walkabout’ without a goal, intention, plan or timetable.
Divination summary: original thoughts & ideas; new beginnings; disturbance in established practices or relationships; lack of spontaneity, plans, intentions, analytical approach; becoming pregnant; initial fusion of male & female elements or aspects in a situation; loss of innocence; work (as opposed to play); adult preoccupations (as opposed to children’s concerns).
38. Desire: group - Will (2 red)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Desire/38.aspx
The image
A young woman, whose appearance suggests that she may be from Central Asia, sits in an almost enclosed space. She wears a lot of red and looks towards us with a direct, sensual, challenging gaze. In her right hand she holds an open pomegranate, several seeds of which are also visible on the palm of her left hand. Behind her on a perch sits a bird of prey, perhaps a falcon, which looks at her with fierce eyes. She is leaning against a purple cushion.
The archetypeDesire: the motive force and female pillar of life; the prime mover of being: e-motion = movement outwards.Just as the encounter of sperm and egg is at the origin of the new life of the child in the womb, so life in the manifest universe has its origins also in the meeting of two forces, the second and female of which is desire. Merriam-Webster defines it as a ‘conscious impulse toward something that promises enjoyment…’ The use of the verb - to desire ‘stresses the strength of feeling and often implies strong intention or aim’. Desire is a sine qua non of existence: it permeates every aspect of life and without it, there would be no life: we exist because we desire to do so. Desire is the power source for the Will, which expresses through emotion, meaning literally – movement outwards. Desire powers the Will to make space for the Creation. [1] Divinatory meanings
I believe it was Freud who explained that without sublimating sexual desire (i.e. diverting it away into other channels) there would be no culture and civilisation. Perhaps, now that our ‘civilisation’ is visibly and rapidly destroying our planet, we will be less inclined to suppose automatically that if we were to - in the famous phrase - ‘make love, not war’, the human condition would be worse.
The female pole, the Will, is motivated by the drive towards sensory pleasures, the foremost of which is sex. The implications of this seem to be two-fold. First, the pursuit and fulfilment of sexual desire reverses the urge to fish constantly for inspiration in the Unconscious. The area of creativity is transferred from the search for contact with the Unconscious to the search for reciprocal contact in the world of consciousness – through the experience of transcendence in, rather than out of, the body.[2] Second, this fulfilment reverses the collective hyperactivity of the planet. Sensual pleasure in general, and sex in particular, function at other rhythms than that of the ‘civilised’ activities resulting from sublimation. They induce slowness. Speed is a balloon of tension; sensuality releases the tension, bursts the balloon and aborts the hurry – both in activity and in relationship.
The opposition to desire comes, ultimately, from the forces of introversion. Just as attaining ‘enlightenment’ is billed as a solitary activity, so all those who have problems making authentic, feeling contact with others will oppose desire and its drive towards contact and closeness. Equally, those whose self-image and status depend upon cerebral or indeed artistic activity of a solitary nature will be threatened.
Desire, to sum up, goes with forthright self-promotion; wallflowers and shrinking violets are disadvantaged. In a more than merely sexual sense, the pursuit of desire requires and stimulates the sense of self. All over the world, people’s desires are being controlled and manipulated by governments, corporations, the media, religions and so on. To know and pursue your own desires makes you an individualist – since no-one can do this effectively on your behalf.
Divination summary
urges, passions; going for what you want; abandon, sensuality, appetites; wilfulness; sensory stimulation; languor, satiety; play, ease, enjoyment, fulfilment, pleasure, release; intimacy; individuality, forthrightness, candour, idiosyncrasy, independence, charisma.
39. Creation: group - heart (3 green)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Creation/39.aspx
The image
A certain naivety pervades this image of the Creation, which looks for all the world like a lopsided goldfish bowl. Freshness and innocence, rather than sophistication, dominate this view of the new-made Earth. From the top down, a sky with while clouds gives way to a green Earth with mountains, fields and some deer-like animals. These again, in the foreground, give way to an ‘ocean’, in which swim two small fish, but which is entirely dominated by an enormous whale. At the left of the image, at the water’s edge, is a tree whose branches swirl out towards the fields and mountains.
The ArchetypeCreation: Conception + Desire = Creation; the latter is the product of fusion of the two former, also the balancer between them.
We live in a bi-polar cosmos. Creation is possible at the point where the two fundamental constituents of the psyche – Conception (male) and Desire (female) come together. This union produces a third element, which incorporates in itself part of the nature of each of its progenitors. The scenario is identical to that by which male and female (e.g. humans) mate and produce offspring: genetically, the latter are a mixture of the parents; in the same way, they are a psychic mix of male and female elements also. Creation is the prototype of the ‘offspring’. The bi-polarity of Spirit and Will is inherently unstable; it is Heart, of which Creation is the fundamental archetype, which provides the balance, out of which will come Form (card 39).
Divinatory meanings
Creation is a spirit-side activity with its roots in the (female) Unconscious. Merriam-Webster: creation – ‘the act of bringing the world into ordered existence; ….. an original work of art’. Just as the Creation has its origins, ultimately, in the Unconscious, so the artist brings into being an original work which similarly originates in the Unconscious. Interestingly, we have origin and original from the same root – the Latin oriri, to rise. Again, the theme of the artist’s muse is a very widespread one. This corresponds to the card 59, Vision. This is the link between the Unconscious and the creative process. The vision is a form of Input from the Unconscious (card 77), symbolised by the offer of a box (as in the case of Pandora) containing secrets from the other world.[3]
A feeling of inflation accompanies creative work. You feel as if you are a person of exceptional value; that you are above the common mass of humanity. This feeling is the effect of contact with the Unconscious, whose reach and resources are so much vaster than those of the conscious mind – how could one who has access to them fail to feel at least a little god-like? This is likely to be reinforced by the feelings of deference with which the creative act and person are typically met. As a creator you are a pioneer, after all, and this is reflected in the respect, even almost reverence accorded to your creative endeavour. Creation is an active, rather male-sided pursuit but it is powered by the outpourings of the Unconscious. This means you are in thrall to your muse – when you have access to ‘her’, you work and are ecstatic; when you lose contact with her, you are bereft and downcast.
Given the individualistic and charismatic nature of the creator, it is natural enough that opposition to your creative process should come from Need. No matter what the rewards reaped by dedication to the solitary discipline of Creation, you will not be able to avoid indefinitely the competing demands of the appetites, including primarily the need for society, company, relationship with your fellow-beings. Creative activity cannot go very far if it is not integrated into a matrix of human contact. All in all, as a creative individual you exhibit the characteristic of Radiance: the strong sense of yourself, your daemon (‘attendant power or spirit’[4]), a dedication to your task which makes you able to rise above the limitations of the dominant or submissive tendencies in interpersonal behaviour. To be creative is to have an effective and solid sense of self, since how else will you withstand the encounter with the Unconscious? The creator who loses this centre will end up soon enough on the scrap-heap of the psyche.
Divination summary
creative endeavour; breakthroughs in intuiting and understanding, solitary work, self-imposed discipline, dedication to a task, self-confidence, feelings of worth; being set apart from ordinary people; admiration from others, being in thrall to one’s muse, therefore alternance of exhilaration and depression; struggle against impulses to socialise.
40. Form: group - form (4 orange)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Form/40.aspx
The image
The huge desert sun setting is the backdrop for a camel caravan passing from right to left and pictured from a position very close to the ground. Three camels and two nomads can be seen in silhouette; one of the latter riding, the other walking. The sun on the horizon sends long shadows of the people and animals across the sand. The whole tableau is dominated by oranges and reds, broken only by the dark shadows. There is some hazing, no doubt due to the heat, along the ground at the horizon line. Overall there is a primordial effect, with landscape and light contributing to a simplification so radical that shape assumes overwhelming importance.
The Archetype
Rainring is built on the Crossroads of two great polarities: male – female and conscious – unconscious. With the fourth fundamental archetype, Form, we arrive at the first constituent of this latter polarity. Form is the terrain of what we see and know; of time, reason and differentiation. Consciousness begins with division, and the first division is male – female. These fuse in Creation, and this fused energy manifests as Form. These four elements are reflected in the spread called the centred triangle. In this triangle, the three outer positions represent female, male and balance, whilst the fourth position, centre, is the result – the form which the manifestation being explored will take.
Divinatory meaningsForm: the fourth principle: manifestation, differentiation, proliferation – the realm of the senses.
Preamble: Mystics experience multiplicity as an illusion, saying that in reality all living things are merely atoms of the one whole. The manifest world of form is then usually categorised as something to be transcended. Form is a poor relation with whom we may be obliged to stay for a while, but we should regard this as a temporary reversal of fortune, and aim to get out as soon as possible.
In Rainring, by contrast, we have no problem with Form. Form is as much part of the rich tapestry of existence as is the Unconscious. Indeed, it is one of the two absolutely indispensable polarities which make up the second axis of our universe: north – south in the Rainring formation. (male – female being east –west). In Rainring we are not trying to escape Form, but to give it its correct valuation in the overall scheme of the psyche.
When you draw the card Form, it refers to an immediacy of contact, an attunement, whether with the physical world, or with other people. Form says that you are connected, that you are in touch. Expressions like ‘down-to-earth’ and ‘common sense’ are appropriate. Form further refers to order, as against chaos: things are neat and tidy in your life; you have balance, harmony and control. In terms of relationships, the card resonance describes your situation – you are on the same wavelength as others. The glue which binds societies is produced by those who have their finger on the pulse of the prevailing mood and behaviour. With resonance, then, you will affect people by speaking or acting in a way that they can understand and relate to. This is made possible also by your adaptability. You are not on a crusade, riding some great obsession; hence you are free to take a pragmatic approach – ‘let’s do what works’.
Your difficulty is in the problematic nature of your relations with the Unconscious. You occupy a pole position where you lack imagination, flair, inspiration. Your stability is both your great asset and your great liability. Eventually, you will have to connect to your unconscious, for if not, you will end up like a dead soul. It is in fact the urge of the soul for inner movement which will oppose itself to you: like a landlocked surfer desperate to get to the ocean. To summarize: you are the manifestation of the male-female balance in Creation. Whilst the creator merely creates, you can build – and not only with things, but with people. Nevertheless, your triumphs will be short-lived unless you can reconnect to the source - which takes us to card 40, Flow-Singer
Divination summary
order, practicality, health, problem-solving, results, stability, earthiness, common sense; ease with others, getting on well with people, communicating effectively humour; pragmatism, absence of obsessive ideas or principles; lack of imagination or originality; excessive focus on the material world; danger of shallowness, imitation and disconnect from individual spiritual source.
[1] Note that the whole ‘enlightenment’ circus, with its identification of desire as the enemy of ‘spiritual’ development, is a product of heavy male-sided denial of the feminine. Children, who incarnate desire in an intense form, have been and continue to be the most oppressed group on our planet.
[2] This is not, however, to do with tantra, since both traditional and modern tantric practices seem to aim to by-pass completely the emotional issues surrounding male-female interaction, hence making tantra fundamentally repressive of the female side of the psyche. It must be remembered that emotion is as integral to the Will as is desire.
[3] there are a number of versions of the Pandora myth, some having her release evils from her jar (box), others depicting her as a giver of gifts.
[4] Merriam-Webster
This is the first part of set 5, containing cards 37-40; part 2 has the remainder
NOTES
1) The Fundamental Archetypes are the basic constituents of the psyche. They are the building blocks out of which everything else is constructed. They constitute set 5, which corresponds to Group 5, the Unconscious. Just as the passengers on the deck of an ocean liner hear barely if at all the engines which power the vessel, so we surmise the existence and nature of the archetypes essentially from their manifest results.
2) I have asked the cards themselves to give indications on the practical effects of these set 5 cards. In this way, we can attempt to bring them up from the realms of deep shadow and obscurity into sufficient light to enable us to discover practical divinatory meanings for them.
3) The structure of the individual entry.
Each entry begins with a description of the image; the published definition of the archetype follows, with or without some expansion; finally we focus our attention on teasing out the divinatory meanings, which we summarise at the end.
37. Conception: group - Spirit (1 violet/purple)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Conception/37.aspx
The Image
Situated within an approximate circle we have the image of a mountainous landscape which is faintly illuminated by a minimal amount of light. There are stars, one of which appears larger, but no moon. Among the mountains, the deep purple tones of the landscape are relieved by a single small red circular spot; the image does not reveal what it represents.
The archetype Conception: ‘what cannot be imagined – conceived - cannot take form; the birth of possibility; the male pillar of life.’
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines conception in various ways, including ‘the originating of something in the mind.’ Conception is the origination of the manifest universe: it is the primary activity of Spirit, the male pole. It is an indispensable ingredient for all creation, from that of the universe on down to this dictionary definition or piece of writing. Conception further means both ‘the process of becoming pregnant involving fertilisation…’ and also ‘beginning’. In choosing the name ’Conception’ for Rainring’s Spirit archetype, we had all these meanings in mind.
Divinatory meanings
In Conception, you say goodbye to something: it is the process by which you allow a thought to rise from the Unconscious and be born into awareness. And you do this in order, ultimately, to communicate it. Thought is a vibration, and to conceive something is to send this vibration out into the universe, in order to get response for yourself. Conception has an explosive quality: it is going to de-stabilise what is, and this is true of relationship as of any other area of psyche. So the divinatory meaning of Conception is associated with beginnings and also disturbance of the status quo, drama, instability, re-evaluation. The opposition to Conception comes from the unnameable source of everything. Conception, like everything else, is a duality, a coin with two sides: what is brought into being is possibility, but also limitation. A concept, if you like, can have enormously fruitful results, but at the same time, it can send everyone off in a certain direction to the detriment of all others. Ever afterwards, it will have to be taken into account by future thinkers. Conception is like the first footprint in a limitless expanse of virgin snow.
To sum up, there is something driven about Spirit, such that Conception implies that a certain quality of anarchic, unreflective, unselfconscious being is going to be replaced by direction, purpose, analysis, intentional activity…. I am reminded of the difference between the white man’s expedition into the bush and the behaviour of the blackfella (aborigine) who goes ‘walkabout’ without a goal, intention, plan or timetable.
Divination summary: original thoughts & ideas; new beginnings; disturbance in established practices or relationships; lack of spontaneity, plans, intentions, analytical approach; becoming pregnant; initial fusion of male & female elements or aspects in a situation; loss of innocence; work (as opposed to play); adult preoccupations (as opposed to children’s concerns).
38. Desire: group - Will (2 red)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Desire/38.aspx
The image
A young woman, whose appearance suggests that she may be from Central Asia, sits in an almost enclosed space. She wears a lot of red and looks towards us with a direct, sensual, challenging gaze. In her right hand she holds an open pomegranate, several seeds of which are also visible on the palm of her left hand. Behind her on a perch sits a bird of prey, perhaps a falcon, which looks at her with fierce eyes. She is leaning against a purple cushion.
The archetypeDesire: the motive force and female pillar of life; the prime mover of being: e-motion = movement outwards.Just as the encounter of sperm and egg is at the origin of the new life of the child in the womb, so life in the manifest universe has its origins also in the meeting of two forces, the second and female of which is desire. Merriam-Webster defines it as a ‘conscious impulse toward something that promises enjoyment…’ The use of the verb - to desire ‘stresses the strength of feeling and often implies strong intention or aim’. Desire is a sine qua non of existence: it permeates every aspect of life and without it, there would be no life: we exist because we desire to do so. Desire is the power source for the Will, which expresses through emotion, meaning literally – movement outwards. Desire powers the Will to make space for the Creation. [1] Divinatory meanings
I believe it was Freud who explained that without sublimating sexual desire (i.e. diverting it away into other channels) there would be no culture and civilisation. Perhaps, now that our ‘civilisation’ is visibly and rapidly destroying our planet, we will be less inclined to suppose automatically that if we were to - in the famous phrase - ‘make love, not war’, the human condition would be worse.
The female pole, the Will, is motivated by the drive towards sensory pleasures, the foremost of which is sex. The implications of this seem to be two-fold. First, the pursuit and fulfilment of sexual desire reverses the urge to fish constantly for inspiration in the Unconscious. The area of creativity is transferred from the search for contact with the Unconscious to the search for reciprocal contact in the world of consciousness – through the experience of transcendence in, rather than out of, the body.[2] Second, this fulfilment reverses the collective hyperactivity of the planet. Sensual pleasure in general, and sex in particular, function at other rhythms than that of the ‘civilised’ activities resulting from sublimation. They induce slowness. Speed is a balloon of tension; sensuality releases the tension, bursts the balloon and aborts the hurry – both in activity and in relationship.
The opposition to desire comes, ultimately, from the forces of introversion. Just as attaining ‘enlightenment’ is billed as a solitary activity, so all those who have problems making authentic, feeling contact with others will oppose desire and its drive towards contact and closeness. Equally, those whose self-image and status depend upon cerebral or indeed artistic activity of a solitary nature will be threatened.
Desire, to sum up, goes with forthright self-promotion; wallflowers and shrinking violets are disadvantaged. In a more than merely sexual sense, the pursuit of desire requires and stimulates the sense of self. All over the world, people’s desires are being controlled and manipulated by governments, corporations, the media, religions and so on. To know and pursue your own desires makes you an individualist – since no-one can do this effectively on your behalf.
Divination summary
urges, passions; going for what you want; abandon, sensuality, appetites; wilfulness; sensory stimulation; languor, satiety; play, ease, enjoyment, fulfilment, pleasure, release; intimacy; individuality, forthrightness, candour, idiosyncrasy, independence, charisma.
39. Creation: group - heart (3 green)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Creation/39.aspx
The image
A certain naivety pervades this image of the Creation, which looks for all the world like a lopsided goldfish bowl. Freshness and innocence, rather than sophistication, dominate this view of the new-made Earth. From the top down, a sky with while clouds gives way to a green Earth with mountains, fields and some deer-like animals. These again, in the foreground, give way to an ‘ocean’, in which swim two small fish, but which is entirely dominated by an enormous whale. At the left of the image, at the water’s edge, is a tree whose branches swirl out towards the fields and mountains.
The ArchetypeCreation: Conception + Desire = Creation; the latter is the product of fusion of the two former, also the balancer between them.
We live in a bi-polar cosmos. Creation is possible at the point where the two fundamental constituents of the psyche – Conception (male) and Desire (female) come together. This union produces a third element, which incorporates in itself part of the nature of each of its progenitors. The scenario is identical to that by which male and female (e.g. humans) mate and produce offspring: genetically, the latter are a mixture of the parents; in the same way, they are a psychic mix of male and female elements also. Creation is the prototype of the ‘offspring’. The bi-polarity of Spirit and Will is inherently unstable; it is Heart, of which Creation is the fundamental archetype, which provides the balance, out of which will come Form (card 39).
Divinatory meanings
Creation is a spirit-side activity with its roots in the (female) Unconscious. Merriam-Webster: creation – ‘the act of bringing the world into ordered existence; ….. an original work of art’. Just as the Creation has its origins, ultimately, in the Unconscious, so the artist brings into being an original work which similarly originates in the Unconscious. Interestingly, we have origin and original from the same root – the Latin oriri, to rise. Again, the theme of the artist’s muse is a very widespread one. This corresponds to the card 59, Vision. This is the link between the Unconscious and the creative process. The vision is a form of Input from the Unconscious (card 77), symbolised by the offer of a box (as in the case of Pandora) containing secrets from the other world.[3]
A feeling of inflation accompanies creative work. You feel as if you are a person of exceptional value; that you are above the common mass of humanity. This feeling is the effect of contact with the Unconscious, whose reach and resources are so much vaster than those of the conscious mind – how could one who has access to them fail to feel at least a little god-like? This is likely to be reinforced by the feelings of deference with which the creative act and person are typically met. As a creator you are a pioneer, after all, and this is reflected in the respect, even almost reverence accorded to your creative endeavour. Creation is an active, rather male-sided pursuit but it is powered by the outpourings of the Unconscious. This means you are in thrall to your muse – when you have access to ‘her’, you work and are ecstatic; when you lose contact with her, you are bereft and downcast.
Given the individualistic and charismatic nature of the creator, it is natural enough that opposition to your creative process should come from Need. No matter what the rewards reaped by dedication to the solitary discipline of Creation, you will not be able to avoid indefinitely the competing demands of the appetites, including primarily the need for society, company, relationship with your fellow-beings. Creative activity cannot go very far if it is not integrated into a matrix of human contact. All in all, as a creative individual you exhibit the characteristic of Radiance: the strong sense of yourself, your daemon (‘attendant power or spirit’[4]), a dedication to your task which makes you able to rise above the limitations of the dominant or submissive tendencies in interpersonal behaviour. To be creative is to have an effective and solid sense of self, since how else will you withstand the encounter with the Unconscious? The creator who loses this centre will end up soon enough on the scrap-heap of the psyche.
Divination summary
creative endeavour; breakthroughs in intuiting and understanding, solitary work, self-imposed discipline, dedication to a task, self-confidence, feelings of worth; being set apart from ordinary people; admiration from others, being in thrall to one’s muse, therefore alternance of exhilaration and depression; struggle against impulses to socialise.
40. Form: group - form (4 orange)
http://www.rainringcards.com/Cards/Form/40.aspx
The image
The huge desert sun setting is the backdrop for a camel caravan passing from right to left and pictured from a position very close to the ground. Three camels and two nomads can be seen in silhouette; one of the latter riding, the other walking. The sun on the horizon sends long shadows of the people and animals across the sand. The whole tableau is dominated by oranges and reds, broken only by the dark shadows. There is some hazing, no doubt due to the heat, along the ground at the horizon line. Overall there is a primordial effect, with landscape and light contributing to a simplification so radical that shape assumes overwhelming importance.
The Archetype
Rainring is built on the Crossroads of two great polarities: male – female and conscious – unconscious. With the fourth fundamental archetype, Form, we arrive at the first constituent of this latter polarity. Form is the terrain of what we see and know; of time, reason and differentiation. Consciousness begins with division, and the first division is male – female. These fuse in Creation, and this fused energy manifests as Form. These four elements are reflected in the spread called the centred triangle. In this triangle, the three outer positions represent female, male and balance, whilst the fourth position, centre, is the result – the form which the manifestation being explored will take.
Divinatory meaningsForm: the fourth principle: manifestation, differentiation, proliferation – the realm of the senses.
Preamble: Mystics experience multiplicity as an illusion, saying that in reality all living things are merely atoms of the one whole. The manifest world of form is then usually categorised as something to be transcended. Form is a poor relation with whom we may be obliged to stay for a while, but we should regard this as a temporary reversal of fortune, and aim to get out as soon as possible.
In Rainring, by contrast, we have no problem with Form. Form is as much part of the rich tapestry of existence as is the Unconscious. Indeed, it is one of the two absolutely indispensable polarities which make up the second axis of our universe: north – south in the Rainring formation. (male – female being east –west). In Rainring we are not trying to escape Form, but to give it its correct valuation in the overall scheme of the psyche.
When you draw the card Form, it refers to an immediacy of contact, an attunement, whether with the physical world, or with other people. Form says that you are connected, that you are in touch. Expressions like ‘down-to-earth’ and ‘common sense’ are appropriate. Form further refers to order, as against chaos: things are neat and tidy in your life; you have balance, harmony and control. In terms of relationships, the card resonance describes your situation – you are on the same wavelength as others. The glue which binds societies is produced by those who have their finger on the pulse of the prevailing mood and behaviour. With resonance, then, you will affect people by speaking or acting in a way that they can understand and relate to. This is made possible also by your adaptability. You are not on a crusade, riding some great obsession; hence you are free to take a pragmatic approach – ‘let’s do what works’.
Your difficulty is in the problematic nature of your relations with the Unconscious. You occupy a pole position where you lack imagination, flair, inspiration. Your stability is both your great asset and your great liability. Eventually, you will have to connect to your unconscious, for if not, you will end up like a dead soul. It is in fact the urge of the soul for inner movement which will oppose itself to you: like a landlocked surfer desperate to get to the ocean. To summarize: you are the manifestation of the male-female balance in Creation. Whilst the creator merely creates, you can build – and not only with things, but with people. Nevertheless, your triumphs will be short-lived unless you can reconnect to the source - which takes us to card 40, Flow-Singer
Divination summary
order, practicality, health, problem-solving, results, stability, earthiness, common sense; ease with others, getting on well with people, communicating effectively humour; pragmatism, absence of obsessive ideas or principles; lack of imagination or originality; excessive focus on the material world; danger of shallowness, imitation and disconnect from individual spiritual source.
[1] Note that the whole ‘enlightenment’ circus, with its identification of desire as the enemy of ‘spiritual’ development, is a product of heavy male-sided denial of the feminine. Children, who incarnate desire in an intense form, have been and continue to be the most oppressed group on our planet.
[2] This is not, however, to do with tantra, since both traditional and modern tantric practices seem to aim to by-pass completely the emotional issues surrounding male-female interaction, hence making tantra fundamentally repressive of the female side of the psyche. It must be remembered that emotion is as integral to the Will as is desire.
[3] there are a number of versions of the Pandora myth, some having her release evils from her jar (box), others depicting her as a giver of gifts.
[4] Merriam-Webster
