Chiriku
This post is in part to demonstrate the incisiveness and power of the Symbolon deck--more specifically, of this deck's Little White Book.
The spread I devised is called "The Sword of Damocles Tableau" (available at http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p=3354009).
The subject of the reading is a constant state of peril affecting me; disaster threatens at every turn. Every time the phone rings or an email lands in my inbox, it could be a message indicating that the jig is up and the world is about to explode around me (and quite a few other people).
I chose Symbolon instead of tarot because I heard it packs a major wallop and that's what I need at this time.
As you might know, the cards in this deck do not have titles or numbers written on them, so the reader is obliged to either read purely intuitively from the imagery, or flip through the booklet until they see the picture of their card and read the explanations therein.
I have done both and included: (1) a description for each card, (2) my intuitive interpretation, and (3) the subtitles/explanations from the booklet that I find most pertinent to my situation.
..............................................................5..........................................................
..............................................................4...........................................................
...................................................2..........1.........3................................................
...............................................................6..........................................................
...............................................................7..........................................................
1)- Damocles : you , your attitude or role in this situation.
Symbolon card image : one knight sits against a tree trunk, his horse tied up nearby, his sword slack beside him on the ground while he sleeps (or dreams, or dies, has a vision; his eyes are closed). Before him is a glowing apparition of another knight, who holds his own sword upright and at the ready.
Intuitive interpretation : I am closing my eyes in weariness, tired after wrestling with fear, with the what-ifs (an enterprise that drains energy). Perhaps I hope that when I wake up, things will be somewhat less dire.
The Absolute Fool : Tilting at windmills, the loser, lethargy, dreams of heroics.
Well, now. " You are a loser. " Packs a punch, indeed. I do not have the will to be the hand that pulls the pin on the grenade-whether that is because I am a lethargic, frightened 'loser' or because I want to shield the other parties involved from harm as much as possible. Either way, I lose, so the term "loser" is apt.
2) - The King : those who can potentially teach you something in this situation (whether out of goodwill or ill-intent).
Symbolon card image : While a unicorn drinks at the river's edge, a warrior rushes at it from behind with a spear.
Intuitive interpretation : This is a tough one. People who attack with strategy and deception? (I already employ such tactics). Innocent people i.e. the unicorn? There are a few people involved who are blissful innocents, who will be ravaged when the explosion occurs--what could I, the agent of their impending harm, possibly learn from them now?
Guilt . The unintentional act, acting in good faith, victim-culprit relationship.
Wow. Two cards in and this deck's LWB is the most piercing and incisive I've ever encountered. I am indeed both a "perpetrator" and "one who fights for his very innocence" (because in a way, I too am a victim or at least a sufferer). And it gets even more penetrating, and astoundingly accurate:
I need to think about this one some more. Believe me, I've already considered the urgent need for confession to those who will be harmed by my decisions. But so far, it's always come down to the "leave well enough alone" principle. In this case, I genuinely believe that prolonged ignorance is more compassionate than slamming them with the awful truth.
So, *who* can I learn from here? This card is a tough one to figure out in this position.
3)- The Throne : your responsibilities in this situation, what you must shoulder or bear.
Symbolon card image : a court jester-type in a forest clearing writhes with pain as his foot hovers over a blazing campfire. Nearby, a tortoise watches.
Intuitive interpretation : So far, because everything remains under wraps for the time being, I have not experienced true suffering, true flames. But I helped create "the fire" (the situation that left me no good choice but to take actions that would hurt others) and soon, I must endure its flames. I must experience greater pain than I have thus far--I must feel as much or more pain than the other people who will be harmed.
The Spiteful Troublemaker : Trouble-making brat; pain in the neck; the irritant; the trickster, the ally.
Perhaps this means that, as part of keeping my feet to the fire I created, I must bear the fact that my 'victims' will view me as a traitor who made destructive choices out of selfishness and callousness (when in fact, my destructive choices were born out of an entirely different intention).
4)- The Sword : the underlying terror of the event or circumstance you dread coming to pass--that is, what REALLY scares you, at a deeper/larger level.
Symbolon card image : a soldier strains and grits his teeth as he tries to pull a sword from a stone.
Intuitive interpretation : I fear that in pulling the sword from the stone, like the young boy Arthur, I will be forced to assume a kingship, a level of profound responsibility that I do not want.
Prevention : Fruitless effort, blockage, the power of destiny, defeat by authority.
The first part is not so accurate; I do not charge head-first into anything. If anything, I am circumspect to a fault. All decisions I have made, I have made after excruciatingly careful deliberation, believing them to be the lesser of the evils around me. However, the second part could be an underlying fear: that after all of my hard choices, after my taking up a sword that others might have abandoned because it was not, after all, their own...all will have been for naught. Terrifying, indeed.
5)- The Hair : a factor you can't control that can affect the sword's dropping, or not dropping, on you.
Symbolon card image : In a city square or plaza, two well-dressed men of consequence seem to be discussing the tableau behind them: a young woman standing on a platform, her neck and wrists bound in the stocks. There's a piece of paper affixed to the contraption that probably details the nature of her alleged crime. The men's faces display no sympathy, but a woman and boy look with dismay at the bound girl.
Intuitive interpretation : I think this is a very clear, pictorial message that in my situation, all will indeed come to light and I will indeed be exposed to severe punishment and suffering. I "cannot control" the public--that is the key here: the public, society. People out there in the world are the wild cards who will--wittingly or unwittingly---expose me.
The Stocks : Gossip, defamation, destruction with words.
I am not insensible to the possibility that some people out there (even ones I know) have already learned the truth and are discussing it among themselves. So, I am not making a "mistake" as the LWB suggests. Again, this card is in the position of what I can't control, and we can never control people talking.
Now, I must share this further bit from the LWB with you, because it is so astoundingly accurate and pertinent to my situation:
Is it? Easier for whom? I can't help but want to prolong the golden oblivion of those who are innocent and undeserving of the devastation that will follow the explosion. If they can go one more day without suffering, I will feel that I have done my best to mitigate the inevitable harm.
I know my choices will be made public; the sword of Damocles will surely drop on my head. But yes, I do find it too difficult (for me, but also for all involved) to come clean at this time. To me, the time is premature.
6)- The Sceptre : a factor you *do* control ; your strength or proactive will.
Symbolon card image : a sad-faced court jester looks out from behind the bars of his prison window.
Intuitive interpretation : I control whether or not I see myself as a prisoner, a pathetic victim trapped in a cage, or whether I see myself in a different light (perhaps as a fighter for justice or a warrior, a noble creature who defends their unorthodox--and painful--choices).
Captivity : Excess pressure; the stone which is cast; the impending explosion.
The LWB needs to be quoted in full to demonstrate its astonishing incisiveness:
The card tells me, "You have to accept the impossibility of choosing between responsibility and freedom." I think I understand:
I made a certain choice; I became a responsible party, someone who has taken on the kingship of Arthur by attempting to pull the sword from the stone. In taking this action, I shackled myself--and I knew that going in; I signed up for the consequences. It's very simple, as the Symbolon tells me: if I had not taken on the responsibility, I would be free. In taking on the responsibility, I am captive. I cannot be both responsible and free in this situation. So be it.
So, I will continue to live in captivity (of more than one kind). And that is my strength, my proactive will.
My strength is that I can shoulder the burdens of captivity by choice, for a good cause.
My strength is that I chose responsibility even knowing that prison bars were included in the package deal.
I can focus on the responsibility part of the prison, instead of thinking of myself as a hapless pawn in the careening railroad path of outside circumstance.
7)- The Kingdom : the payoff, what is waiting for you at the other end of your fear.
Symbolon card image : a frowning man faces an unimpressed and implacable woman across a chasm in the ground beneath them. A sword is dropping down into the chasm between them.
Intuitive interpretation : I would like to think that the dropping and disappearance of the sword is what awaits me at the other end--but let's get real, as I'm sure the Symbolon deck creators would agree. The payoff to my choices and actions is what I fear most: a permanent chasm between me and those I would have shielded from harm, if I could have.
Disagreement : Battle of the sexes; clash; the hatchet; breaking the symbolon.
If I put a more positive spin on this than the one in my intuitive interpretation, I could say that after the explosion, the other parties and I could one day get to the point of having a fairly open discussion in which I explain my decisions and actions and they hear them without going nuclear (as I have no doubt they will in the beginning). That is quite a tall order and I don't know if it's possible...but I will try to keep my sights fixed on this "kingdom" in order to make it through the tough times that loom in my not-distant-enough future.
.
The spread I devised is called "The Sword of Damocles Tableau" (available at http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p=3354009).
The subject of the reading is a constant state of peril affecting me; disaster threatens at every turn. Every time the phone rings or an email lands in my inbox, it could be a message indicating that the jig is up and the world is about to explode around me (and quite a few other people).
I chose Symbolon instead of tarot because I heard it packs a major wallop and that's what I need at this time.
As you might know, the cards in this deck do not have titles or numbers written on them, so the reader is obliged to either read purely intuitively from the imagery, or flip through the booklet until they see the picture of their card and read the explanations therein.
I have done both and included: (1) a description for each card, (2) my intuitive interpretation, and (3) the subtitles/explanations from the booklet that I find most pertinent to my situation.
..............................................................5..........................................................
..............................................................4...........................................................
...................................................2..........1.........3................................................
...............................................................6..........................................................
...............................................................7..........................................................
1)- Damocles : you , your attitude or role in this situation.
Symbolon card image : one knight sits against a tree trunk, his horse tied up nearby, his sword slack beside him on the ground while he sleeps (or dreams, or dies, has a vision; his eyes are closed). Before him is a glowing apparition of another knight, who holds his own sword upright and at the ready.
Intuitive interpretation : I am closing my eyes in weariness, tired after wrestling with fear, with the what-ifs (an enterprise that drains energy). Perhaps I hope that when I wake up, things will be somewhat less dire.
The Absolute Fool : Tilting at windmills, the loser, lethargy, dreams of heroics.
Well, now. " You are a loser. " Packs a punch, indeed. I do not have the will to be the hand that pulls the pin on the grenade-whether that is because I am a lethargic, frightened 'loser' or because I want to shield the other parties involved from harm as much as possible. Either way, I lose, so the term "loser" is apt.
2) - The King : those who can potentially teach you something in this situation (whether out of goodwill or ill-intent).
Symbolon card image : While a unicorn drinks at the river's edge, a warrior rushes at it from behind with a spear.
Intuitive interpretation : This is a tough one. People who attack with strategy and deception? (I already employ such tactics). Innocent people i.e. the unicorn? There are a few people involved who are blissful innocents, who will be ravaged when the explosion occurs--what could I, the agent of their impending harm, possibly learn from them now?
Guilt . The unintentional act, acting in good faith, victim-culprit relationship.
Wow. Two cards in and this deck's LWB is the most piercing and incisive I've ever encountered. I am indeed both a "perpetrator" and "one who fights for his very innocence" (because in a way, I too am a victim or at least a sufferer). And it gets even more penetrating, and astoundingly accurate:
I need to think about this one some more. Believe me, I've already considered the urgent need for confession to those who will be harmed by my decisions. But so far, it's always come down to the "leave well enough alone" principle. In this case, I genuinely believe that prolonged ignorance is more compassionate than slamming them with the awful truth.
So, *who* can I learn from here? This card is a tough one to figure out in this position.
3)- The Throne : your responsibilities in this situation, what you must shoulder or bear.
Symbolon card image : a court jester-type in a forest clearing writhes with pain as his foot hovers over a blazing campfire. Nearby, a tortoise watches.
Intuitive interpretation : So far, because everything remains under wraps for the time being, I have not experienced true suffering, true flames. But I helped create "the fire" (the situation that left me no good choice but to take actions that would hurt others) and soon, I must endure its flames. I must experience greater pain than I have thus far--I must feel as much or more pain than the other people who will be harmed.
The Spiteful Troublemaker : Trouble-making brat; pain in the neck; the irritant; the trickster, the ally.
Perhaps this means that, as part of keeping my feet to the fire I created, I must bear the fact that my 'victims' will view me as a traitor who made destructive choices out of selfishness and callousness (when in fact, my destructive choices were born out of an entirely different intention).
4)- The Sword : the underlying terror of the event or circumstance you dread coming to pass--that is, what REALLY scares you, at a deeper/larger level.
Symbolon card image : a soldier strains and grits his teeth as he tries to pull a sword from a stone.
Intuitive interpretation : I fear that in pulling the sword from the stone, like the young boy Arthur, I will be forced to assume a kingship, a level of profound responsibility that I do not want.
Prevention : Fruitless effort, blockage, the power of destiny, defeat by authority.
The first part is not so accurate; I do not charge head-first into anything. If anything, I am circumspect to a fault. All decisions I have made, I have made after excruciatingly careful deliberation, believing them to be the lesser of the evils around me. However, the second part could be an underlying fear: that after all of my hard choices, after my taking up a sword that others might have abandoned because it was not, after all, their own...all will have been for naught. Terrifying, indeed.
5)- The Hair : a factor you can't control that can affect the sword's dropping, or not dropping, on you.
Symbolon card image : In a city square or plaza, two well-dressed men of consequence seem to be discussing the tableau behind them: a young woman standing on a platform, her neck and wrists bound in the stocks. There's a piece of paper affixed to the contraption that probably details the nature of her alleged crime. The men's faces display no sympathy, but a woman and boy look with dismay at the bound girl.
Intuitive interpretation : I think this is a very clear, pictorial message that in my situation, all will indeed come to light and I will indeed be exposed to severe punishment and suffering. I "cannot control" the public--that is the key here: the public, society. People out there in the world are the wild cards who will--wittingly or unwittingly---expose me.
The Stocks : Gossip, defamation, destruction with words.
I am not insensible to the possibility that some people out there (even ones I know) have already learned the truth and are discussing it among themselves. So, I am not making a "mistake" as the LWB suggests. Again, this card is in the position of what I can't control, and we can never control people talking.
Now, I must share this further bit from the LWB with you, because it is so astoundingly accurate and pertinent to my situation:
Is it? Easier for whom? I can't help but want to prolong the golden oblivion of those who are innocent and undeserving of the devastation that will follow the explosion. If they can go one more day without suffering, I will feel that I have done my best to mitigate the inevitable harm.
I know my choices will be made public; the sword of Damocles will surely drop on my head. But yes, I do find it too difficult (for me, but also for all involved) to come clean at this time. To me, the time is premature.
6)- The Sceptre : a factor you *do* control ; your strength or proactive will.
Symbolon card image : a sad-faced court jester looks out from behind the bars of his prison window.
Intuitive interpretation : I control whether or not I see myself as a prisoner, a pathetic victim trapped in a cage, or whether I see myself in a different light (perhaps as a fighter for justice or a warrior, a noble creature who defends their unorthodox--and painful--choices).
Captivity : Excess pressure; the stone which is cast; the impending explosion.
The LWB needs to be quoted in full to demonstrate its astonishing incisiveness:
The card tells me, "You have to accept the impossibility of choosing between responsibility and freedom." I think I understand:
I made a certain choice; I became a responsible party, someone who has taken on the kingship of Arthur by attempting to pull the sword from the stone. In taking this action, I shackled myself--and I knew that going in; I signed up for the consequences. It's very simple, as the Symbolon tells me: if I had not taken on the responsibility, I would be free. In taking on the responsibility, I am captive. I cannot be both responsible and free in this situation. So be it.
So, I will continue to live in captivity (of more than one kind). And that is my strength, my proactive will.
My strength is that I can shoulder the burdens of captivity by choice, for a good cause.
My strength is that I chose responsibility even knowing that prison bars were included in the package deal.
I can focus on the responsibility part of the prison, instead of thinking of myself as a hapless pawn in the careening railroad path of outside circumstance.
7)- The Kingdom : the payoff, what is waiting for you at the other end of your fear.
Symbolon card image : a frowning man faces an unimpressed and implacable woman across a chasm in the ground beneath them. A sword is dropping down into the chasm between them.
Intuitive interpretation : I would like to think that the dropping and disappearance of the sword is what awaits me at the other end--but let's get real, as I'm sure the Symbolon deck creators would agree. The payoff to my choices and actions is what I fear most: a permanent chasm between me and those I would have shielded from harm, if I could have.
Disagreement : Battle of the sexes; clash; the hatchet; breaking the symbolon.
If I put a more positive spin on this than the one in my intuitive interpretation, I could say that after the explosion, the other parties and I could one day get to the point of having a fairly open discussion in which I explain my decisions and actions and they hear them without going nuclear (as I have no doubt they will in the beginning). That is quite a tall order and I don't know if it's possible...but I will try to keep my sights fixed on this "kingdom" in order to make it through the tough times that loom in my not-distant-enough future.
.
