Wendywu
Crystallisation – Justice
The first thing I notice about this card is the three hazelnuts. In Celtic terms the hazelnut brought or signified wisdom, and three was a number of great significance to the Celts. Having noted the hazelnuts I recalled that Lorena Babcock Moore said that they are about to be plated with iron pyrites – Fools Gold. Thus true wisdom will be smothered in fake gold. I like the humour in the idea that the nuts are not even to be plated with real gold, but with Fools Gold instead. This emphasises again the fact that those who would value the nuts for the gold that they think they see are themselves the fools. Also we are blind (in many cases) to the very real value of the nut meat. How often do we hear the phrase “getting down to the real meaty issues”. Nut meat is as good as any other and indeed if you think about the Celtic shamans and the days in which they lived nut meat would have been very valuable indeed.
(Extract from a Wikipedia article)
In 1995 evidence of large-scale Mesolithic nut processing, some 9,000 years old, was found in a midden pit on the island of Colonsay in Scotland. The evidence consists of a large, shallow pit full of the remains of hundreds of thousands of burned hazelnut shells. Hazelnuts have been found on other Mesolithic sites, but rarely in such quantities or concentrated in one pit. The nuts were radiocarbon dated to 7720+/-110BP, which calibrates to circa 7000 BC. Similar sites in Britain are known only at Farnham in Surrey and Cass ny Hawin on the Isle of Man.
This discovery gives an insight into communal activity and planning in the period. The nuts were harvested in a single year and pollen analysis suggests that the hazel trees were all cut down at the same time. The scale of the activity, unparalleled elsewhere in Scotland, and the lack of large game on the island, suggests the possibility that Colonsay contained a community with a largely vegetarian diet for the time they spent on the island. The pit was originally on a beach close to the shore, and was associated with two smaller stone-lined pits, whose function remains obscure, a hearth, and a second cluster of pits)
I look at the leaves still attached to the nuts. Each of them has a leaf split into three parts and again, each part of each leaf has a vein split into three part. I love the way the eyes painted onto the nuts mean each of them looks like a person with flowing hair. For me the nuts represent a meeting of minds – possibly maiden, mother and crone (or any other triplicity that you might resonate to). For me the lighter area surrounding each of the nuts represents their life force radiating into the atmosphere, and calling to mind the fact that plants are very much a part of the Cosmic Web that supports us all.
I like the background the nets are shown on. It has its own message. It seems to gather the force of the nuts and bring it into one focus that goes straight to the heart of the agate slice. That focus ignores all distractions and just pierces through the crystal.
Either side of the card there are blunt spirals, one of which is black and the other white. Here I think about arguments, differences, alternative and opposing viewpoints. The wisdomswhown in the card (through the collective input of the wise hazelnuts) takes it all of these things into account; for me a wise mind considers all aspects of a matter until something crystallises out of the deliberation. This is very different to the justice of men which (with very few exceptions) consists of opposing arguments, each very biased and between which a jury or judge must choose. Whilst I understand why things must be this way (for we cannot be positive beyond doubt that what we hear is true) – it is difficult sometimes to see the justice in our system. The certainty we require is that of being able to rummage through another’s brain to see his memory played out. And even then memory can be oddly selective. Ultimately we judge ourselves and that, I think, can be the harshest judgment of all because we judge ourselves not on what we actually did, but on why we did it, and we know our own motives. We cannot disguise them to ourselves the way we could if we were justifying our actions to someone else. As I look in my mirror I am my own judge – and I am always found wanting.
If you defocus your eyes and stare at the hazelnuts the Y shape formed by the spaces between them is interesting. Whichever way you look there is a fork in the path ahead – a decision is expected, and must be reached if any further progress is to be made.
Now to achieve Justice there must be decisions. But what is immoral to me may not be so to another. So who judges? Can anyone say they personally never judge another? By action or reaction, thought or word. Since it is a rare person who can say they never judge, it is to be expected that I in my turn am being judged. How does that sit with me? Here I am thinking in terms of morality and ethics rather than the criminal code. If I transgress against my moral code – is it wrong? If my code is such that my transgression seems like just a minor blip against your code you will not understand my disgust with myself. Similarly I might do something you find hugely immoral –how should I react to your judgement when to me the thing I did was normal? So – who judges in the final event….
Looking now at the two heaps of cubic crystals at the top of the card, I see that once again we are dealing in opposites, one is black and the other white. I think of logical arguments built one brick at a time that come tumbling down in the face of judgements made in the light of love. The many faceted crystals at the bottom of the card are an image of godhood (for me). Godhood – so many facets of that particular diamond, and all of them a window to the one Reality.
Next I turned the card upside down and there was so much more to see. Now the crystal cubes are building themselves into very wobbly towers that get more and more top heavy. Super analogy for the idea that little misdeeds generate ever greater ones until the whole thing topples over
. Now the background for the hazelnuts looks even more focussed on the agate slice; it’s diving into the centre with no distinctions or details. The black zig-zags at the side of the cards look like disturbances in the atmosphere caused by the sheer force of the point as it moves downwards. Oddly, with the card at this angle, the force itself looks to be generated by the faceted crystals. Thus it can be seen that Wisdom comes from God! And I see also that the force of the Creator bathes the three chattering nuts, swirls through them and, by their decision, is able to come to a point of action.
The two spirals resemble both shells and tails (although I expect they are neither) and have their spiral effect completed as dots. With the card the right way up they remind me almost irresistibly of wagging tails! (I know they’re not meant to be that but I can’t help what they look like to me). Also they remind me of the exercise I did in the Singing the Soul thread, the story of what has brought me to where I am spiritually. I did my drawing for this exercise as an incomplete spiral with my story starting at the outer section and moving inwards through the spiral, with the last sections were left empty (because I ain’t dead yet!). They remain to be completed as my life goes on. At that time I wanted an inward spiral, with everything moving towards God/Spirit as the central point that I slowly travelling towards. Now, and looking at these spirals on this card, I think I’d work the other way round. I see me as the tiny start point gradually working outwards through my story to eventually blend and become one with the All Spirit who surrounds and pervades us all.
A few hours later and looking at the card the right way up again, I sat just staring at it to see what surfaced. I found myself thinking about that point where everything crystallises – and brings with it that moment of utter clarity when a decision can be made. All the factors have been weighted up and judgement just flows as the gestalt of ideas, facts and beliefs solidifies into crystal. Now I see why she called it Crystallisation – so clever, so true.
The first thing I notice about this card is the three hazelnuts. In Celtic terms the hazelnut brought or signified wisdom, and three was a number of great significance to the Celts. Having noted the hazelnuts I recalled that Lorena Babcock Moore said that they are about to be plated with iron pyrites – Fools Gold. Thus true wisdom will be smothered in fake gold. I like the humour in the idea that the nuts are not even to be plated with real gold, but with Fools Gold instead. This emphasises again the fact that those who would value the nuts for the gold that they think they see are themselves the fools. Also we are blind (in many cases) to the very real value of the nut meat. How often do we hear the phrase “getting down to the real meaty issues”. Nut meat is as good as any other and indeed if you think about the Celtic shamans and the days in which they lived nut meat would have been very valuable indeed.
(Extract from a Wikipedia article)
In 1995 evidence of large-scale Mesolithic nut processing, some 9,000 years old, was found in a midden pit on the island of Colonsay in Scotland. The evidence consists of a large, shallow pit full of the remains of hundreds of thousands of burned hazelnut shells. Hazelnuts have been found on other Mesolithic sites, but rarely in such quantities or concentrated in one pit. The nuts were radiocarbon dated to 7720+/-110BP, which calibrates to circa 7000 BC. Similar sites in Britain are known only at Farnham in Surrey and Cass ny Hawin on the Isle of Man.
This discovery gives an insight into communal activity and planning in the period. The nuts were harvested in a single year and pollen analysis suggests that the hazel trees were all cut down at the same time. The scale of the activity, unparalleled elsewhere in Scotland, and the lack of large game on the island, suggests the possibility that Colonsay contained a community with a largely vegetarian diet for the time they spent on the island. The pit was originally on a beach close to the shore, and was associated with two smaller stone-lined pits, whose function remains obscure, a hearth, and a second cluster of pits)
I look at the leaves still attached to the nuts. Each of them has a leaf split into three parts and again, each part of each leaf has a vein split into three part. I love the way the eyes painted onto the nuts mean each of them looks like a person with flowing hair. For me the nuts represent a meeting of minds – possibly maiden, mother and crone (or any other triplicity that you might resonate to). For me the lighter area surrounding each of the nuts represents their life force radiating into the atmosphere, and calling to mind the fact that plants are very much a part of the Cosmic Web that supports us all.
I like the background the nets are shown on. It has its own message. It seems to gather the force of the nuts and bring it into one focus that goes straight to the heart of the agate slice. That focus ignores all distractions and just pierces through the crystal.
Either side of the card there are blunt spirals, one of which is black and the other white. Here I think about arguments, differences, alternative and opposing viewpoints. The wisdomswhown in the card (through the collective input of the wise hazelnuts) takes it all of these things into account; for me a wise mind considers all aspects of a matter until something crystallises out of the deliberation. This is very different to the justice of men which (with very few exceptions) consists of opposing arguments, each very biased and between which a jury or judge must choose. Whilst I understand why things must be this way (for we cannot be positive beyond doubt that what we hear is true) – it is difficult sometimes to see the justice in our system. The certainty we require is that of being able to rummage through another’s brain to see his memory played out. And even then memory can be oddly selective. Ultimately we judge ourselves and that, I think, can be the harshest judgment of all because we judge ourselves not on what we actually did, but on why we did it, and we know our own motives. We cannot disguise them to ourselves the way we could if we were justifying our actions to someone else. As I look in my mirror I am my own judge – and I am always found wanting.
If you defocus your eyes and stare at the hazelnuts the Y shape formed by the spaces between them is interesting. Whichever way you look there is a fork in the path ahead – a decision is expected, and must be reached if any further progress is to be made.
Now to achieve Justice there must be decisions. But what is immoral to me may not be so to another. So who judges? Can anyone say they personally never judge another? By action or reaction, thought or word. Since it is a rare person who can say they never judge, it is to be expected that I in my turn am being judged. How does that sit with me? Here I am thinking in terms of morality and ethics rather than the criminal code. If I transgress against my moral code – is it wrong? If my code is such that my transgression seems like just a minor blip against your code you will not understand my disgust with myself. Similarly I might do something you find hugely immoral –how should I react to your judgement when to me the thing I did was normal? So – who judges in the final event….
Looking now at the two heaps of cubic crystals at the top of the card, I see that once again we are dealing in opposites, one is black and the other white. I think of logical arguments built one brick at a time that come tumbling down in the face of judgements made in the light of love. The many faceted crystals at the bottom of the card are an image of godhood (for me). Godhood – so many facets of that particular diamond, and all of them a window to the one Reality.
Next I turned the card upside down and there was so much more to see. Now the crystal cubes are building themselves into very wobbly towers that get more and more top heavy. Super analogy for the idea that little misdeeds generate ever greater ones until the whole thing topples over
. Now the background for the hazelnuts looks even more focussed on the agate slice; it’s diving into the centre with no distinctions or details. The black zig-zags at the side of the cards look like disturbances in the atmosphere caused by the sheer force of the point as it moves downwards. Oddly, with the card at this angle, the force itself looks to be generated by the faceted crystals. Thus it can be seen that Wisdom comes from God! And I see also that the force of the Creator bathes the three chattering nuts, swirls through them and, by their decision, is able to come to a point of action. The two spirals resemble both shells and tails (although I expect they are neither) and have their spiral effect completed as dots. With the card the right way up they remind me almost irresistibly of wagging tails! (I know they’re not meant to be that but I can’t help what they look like to me). Also they remind me of the exercise I did in the Singing the Soul thread, the story of what has brought me to where I am spiritually. I did my drawing for this exercise as an incomplete spiral with my story starting at the outer section and moving inwards through the spiral, with the last sections were left empty (because I ain’t dead yet!). They remain to be completed as my life goes on. At that time I wanted an inward spiral, with everything moving towards God/Spirit as the central point that I slowly travelling towards. Now, and looking at these spirals on this card, I think I’d work the other way round. I see me as the tiny start point gradually working outwards through my story to eventually blend and become one with the All Spirit who surrounds and pervades us all.
A few hours later and looking at the card the right way up again, I sat just staring at it to see what surfaced. I found myself thinking about that point where everything crystallises – and brings with it that moment of utter clarity when a decision can be made. All the factors have been weighted up and judgement just flows as the gestalt of ideas, facts and beliefs solidifies into crystal. Now I see why she called it Crystallisation – so clever, so true.
