94stranger
Directory of Meanings Set 8: Love Ways
NOTES
1. Group 8 is concerned with the Conjugation between male and female, and Set 8 reprises this theme, being a description of the journey from the solitary individual, through to Union and beyond.
2. The individual entry is structured as in set 7: the section on meaning comprising general, specific and summary sections, in that order.
64. Need: group – spirit (1 violet/purple)
http://www.rainring.co.uk/Cards/Need/64.aspx
The Image
This is a night scene, with the full moon rising over an expanse of water, on which are silhouetted two swans. The foreground is dry land, with shingle, water plants and, on the right, the stump of a dead tree. A young naked woman straddles this stump. Her nakedness suggests that she is ‘moonstruck’ and her odd, uncomfortable posture implies that she may be involved in a solitary act of sexual arousal.
The meaning
Need:
1) the condition – requiring relief - of the individual emotionally, sexually, spiritually alone; 2) lack of essential prerequisites of health and well-being
A General
The card Need describes the condition of the individual who does not have an intimate partner, taking it as axiomatic that such a condition makes psychific[1] and spiritual wholeness impossible. We assign this card to the Spirit group, on the basis that once the contact with the Will polarity (in 65. Attraction) takes place, this begins the journey away from the solitary state of Need. Need exists at all levels: from the very basic one of the minimum requirement of food, warmth, sleep and so on, to the far more complex question of what is needful for psychific and spiritual wholeness and fulfilment. We shall deal mainly with the latter here.
B Specific
The intensity of Need varies greatly from one individual to another. If your Will (emotional) side is strong, when you have no partner you will experience acute feelings of neediness. If you are much more Spirit-sided, or your female side is severely repressed, you may feel very little need for a partner.[2] Again, body-centred people may experience Need more in terms of sexual than of emotional deprivation. At all events, felt Need is a de-stabiliser which is going to push you towards finding a partner. A sense of inadequacy, of failure readily attaches itself to the state of being single. You find it difficult to handle Need: it is not attractive to others, so you must attempt to hide it. If you have already had a partner, you will use the memory of this to try and give yourself moral support, counteracting your present lack of someone. You may well experience Need as an obsessive state – the search for a partner dominates your psyche.
You may well be confused by the force of this urge to escape from the solitary state of Need. However intense its sexual component, it is also driven by your heart – your need for emotional closeness and sympathetic vibration with another. Hence friendship - where there is no question of sexual attraction - can be a major palliative in your time of Need. But underpinning all the rest is the polarity issue: to be whole, we must unite with our polar opposite. You may also have a parallel movement in your inner world: to ‘make yourself attractive’ could well require working on yourself at some level. As for the opposition to Need, this comes from Need itself. In other words, when you are needy, you feel the need to get out of that distressing state as soon as possible.
To sum up, the central element in Need is the quest for the other. It is not only the need for sexual gratification, but above all the need for completion by the other polarity which provides the driving force of the single individual. Since outer and inner are but two sides of the same coin, there is a corresponding inner need for union: neither the emotional emptiness of Will Denial, nor the sense of being lost of Spirit Denial are conditions which bring any level of individual fulfilment. Finally, as we indicated at the beginning, the card Need can also refer to simple physical issues related to hunger, sleep deprivation and so on.
Divination summary
lack of a partner; unwelcome single status; sexual, emotional or spiritual frustration; inner polarisation and denial; emotional distress due to solitude; craving for companionship; urge towards psychific balance and fulfilment; lack of basic physical or psychological ingredients needed for well-being.
65. Attraction: group – will (2 red)
http://www.rainring.co.uk/Cards/Attraction/65.aspx
The Image
A young man and woman stand in front of a small fairground tent. He grasps her hands in his and they gaze into each other’s eyes. She wears a blue summer dress and matching sandals, he is in grey trousers, with a brown jacket and shoes. The tent is of a strong red, with symbols of the sun and moon displayed above it. It is set on grass among spiral trees. These natural elements are painted in a formalised style which lends a quality of other-worldliness and mystery to the whole scene.
The meaning
Attraction: the fundamental magnetic force between male and female which ensures pairing and proliferation.
A General
The second Love Ways card deals with the elemental condition of Attraction. This same word is in general use to describe both physical and psychological magnetism. This may suggest that psychological attraction, like its physical counterpart, is seen as being a natural phenomenon - we don’t choose Attraction, it chooses us. Attraction is the set 8 card belonging to the Will group, and it is precisely this attribute of magnetism which defines the Will. Although Attraction can be experienced as an inner phenomenon, it most characteristically concerns the outer world and the other, which is where we will direct most of our attention.
B Specific
This is a card which involves a complex mixture of emotions, actions and reactions. First, you will experience a strong element of losing control – you are in the grip of something stronger than you are. This produces two immediate reactions: first, a sense of inner unease, because your whole being is challenged; second, the desire to dominate the situation (in effect, the other person), in order to regain control. (In reality, submissive behaviour is a variation of this: the means by which, if you are this type of individual, you too seek to exert control of your circumstances, to minimise the sense of threat). Your opposition to Attraction, therefore, will come from deep within you, the part of you that is not ready to open the gates of your soul to…this unknown other. Paradoxically, another aspect of you feels already an impulse to protect and nurture this person. Furthermore, you project – imagine – the happy and fulfilled existence that may await you with this person. Part of you wants very much to achieve the goal of a shared life of harmony and balance with another. For, where relationship is concerned, the stakes are the highest possible: it is your opportunity for Completion: that is, for a true end to solitude, to your sense of never really being loved, accepted and understood.
In Attraction, you have not yet reached the stage of consummating your relationship. Nevertheless, because of the intensity and complexity of the emotions aroused, this state of Attraction is a shock to your system, and results in an unconscious withdrawal that you will likely not even be aware of. It counterbalances your conscious impulse to go towards the other.
The above refers to the big picture of Attraction. In a lighter vein, this card will occur when you ‘fancy’ someone in a quite casual context; also when you just feel drawn to a person for reasons unrelated to sex. On an inner level, it connotes your spirit being drawn to the feeling (will) aspect of yourself, and vice versa. Just as the stronger is the polarisation of two individuals, the more powerful the attraction between them, so in your inner world the more active your two poles, the greater your inner psychic dynamic. For example, to produce a great novel, the writer must have both a breadth of vision and understanding (spirit) and an acute sensitivity to emotion (will). The degree of success in marrying these two constituents in a harmonious manner will determine the quality of the finished work.
Divination summary
personal magnetism of yourself or another; drawing or being drawn to someone, whether by sexuality, charisma, common attitudes and interests…; hesitation, doubt, unease over a new relationship; losing control, wanting to assert oneself; desire to protect and nurture; projecting and fantasizing about a future romance; imagining harmony and fulfilment with another; corresponding inner dynamic of your own psyche.
66. Explosion: group – heart (3 green)
http://www.rainring.co.uk/Cards/Explosion/66.aspx
The Image
In the foreground, a young man and woman, infatuated, gaze into each other’s eyes. They also hold each other physically, and we surmise that they are in love and either are or will shortly be in the making-love stage of their relationship. Immediately behind, and towering over them in an apparently threatening manner is a large brown bear. However, a vertical line of toggles in the centre of its chest tell us that the ‘bear’ is a costumed man, not an actual animal. The ‘bear’ is being held back by an individual in a fool’s outfit, who is holding it by a chain and grinning broadly.
The Meaning
Explosion: 1) the surge of orgasmic energy occasioned by the fusion of male and female; 2) falling in love; 3) dramatic event, upheaval, violent outburst
A General
Explosion is the set 8 card belonging to the heart group, and its core meaning concerns the coming together of male and female in the moment of orgasm. The meeting point of Spirit and Will is seen as being at the mid-point between the two, in the heart. The attraction between the poles must, because it is inherent in the nature of humans, lead to coupling. This produces children, but in our view the latter is not its driving force. Male, female and the magnetic force between them is, for Rainring, an inherent property of the psyche. The outer result is children; the inner one is Creation in some other form.
B Specific
Your inner aspect here is one of sympathy, in the sense of a harmonisation between yourself and another. What you and your partner – your polar opposite - have in common is obsession: the imperative unconscious drive to unite. We tend to refer to this as the sex drive, but behind the physical drive is a psychific one. Your relationship is very much in the moment: unreflective, unselfconscious. You are carried away by the magnetic force of the attraction. This is a primitive energy overwhelming any sophisticated defences which you might have attempted to build against it. You are in the grip of powerful unconscious forces which are capable of shaking your existence to its foundations. At the same time, this is a kind of forced programme of education – learning that your body has its own agenda, and you cannot always keep it under control, i.e. subjugate it, using reason or emotion; you can be precipitated out of the fortress of your self-control and exposed to whatever life outside the walls has to teach you. There are occasions when your mind has to take a back seat, and you will have to wait for the force of desire to spend itself somewhat before it can return again to take part in your communication.
The opposition to this force is going to come from the context of long-term relationship at which you are trying to work. Such a conjugation-type relationship involves having to face many painful episodes, many moments of estrangement and alienation from your partner. If the force of Explosion between you and a third party intrudes itself into such a conjugation situation, it is going to add greatly to the difficulties of that long-term conjugation relationship. On the other hand, where there is a long-term relationship which is never going to achieve anything, the external force of Explosion, with its potential to split such a relationship apart, will on balance be a beneficial force.
To sum up, Explosion is a short-term phenomenon, and will cause you serious problems. In this state you lack balance: you are all ‘us’ and no ‘me’. You are intoxicated with the euphoria of infatuation and you cannot back off from it: It is your most powerful experience since the infant bond with your mother. It is going make you resist the demands of your self for space and light. But, in this moment of Explosion, all that is no more than a small cloud on the horizon.
Explosion also has an inner sense, which might arise at moments of exceptional psychific activity, such as for example during an intense phase of creative work by an artist or writer. If you are undergoing a major inner upheaval, particularly where Spirit-Will conjunction is involved, this card could show in a reading. Finally, it has been found that the Unconscious extends the meaning of Explosion to refer to any dramatic situation which the querant may encounter.
Divination meanings
being in love; infatuation, euphoria, loss of personal boundaries; infantile bonding emotions; living in the moment; being in the grip of unconscious contents; inflation; abandon; abandonment of responsibilities; repression of needs of self.
67. Sensuality: group – form (4 orange)
http://www.rainring.co.uk/Cards/Sensuality/67.aspx
The Image
The scene is an interior. A young woman sits naked on a bed, perhaps on the floor. She leans her back against a bolster, her right arm being extended along it. Her left leg is bent with the knee raised, the right leg lies along the ground, bent at the knee and tucked under the other leg. Her left arm is draped loosely over her right thigh. She gazes languidly at her partner who lies on his left side nearby, the lower half of his body under bed covers. His eyes are closed and his arm is outstretched so that his hand rests on the upper part of her inner thigh. The entire scene is painted in shades of orange, and conveys a sense of satiety after sex.
The meaning
Sensuality: the expression of explosion in physical (sensory) terms; the sexual, the sensual and the sensory – inhabiting the realm of sense.
A General
Sensuality is the Love Ways card belonging to the orange Form group and is thus concerned with the physical aspect of relations between male and female.[3] However, the definition of Sensuality is much wider than this, and it refers in general to the predominant presence of the senses, seeming often to be closely linked to the card Sensation. In order to understand Sensuality it must be borne in mind that, whilst this is a fundamentally body-based vibration, other aspects of the psyche are nevertheless involved and must be taken into account.
B Specific
You are in tune with physical or material aspect of attraction, which expresses itself as sensual and sexual contact. This involves your spirit, will and heart energies being taken on a journey through form, rather as a blacksmith will rework metal, given a sufficient temperature, in order to temper it (make it tougher and more resilient). Sensual contact is a very powerful way of bonding individuals.
During periods of great sensual intensity, you are in a position of pilgrimage; an explorer of the realm of the senses. This exploration partly concerns the degree to which attunement with the physical can influence your psyche as a whole, and partly involves the extreme proximity of your self to that of another. The normal relationship position in Sensuality is that of Radiance, in which neither you nor your partner are dominating or submitting. In fact, sensual relations provide the opportunity for you both to play with the whole range of relationship options, but in an essentially co-operative mode of interaction. Where a repetitive pattern of domination and submission emerges, your relationship is likely to end up mired in a swamp and unable to evolve towards Union.
Sensual compatibility is a vital relationship ingredient. You may have great respect for someone’s mind, the tenderest feelings towards them, but if you dislike their body odour or the way they hold themselves, they cannot be a suitable partner for you. From a distance, you have a vision of what this person can be in your life; to be naked with them is to put that vision to the test. The primacy of Sensuality is a phase: it is the context in which you express yourselves towards each other with the utmost intensity. But your spirit side will not be content to remain in the state of inflation typically associated with intense sensual contact: it desires a return to the balance of clarity, upon which to build for the longer term.
In the wider context, Sensuality indicates the presence of sensory or sensuous inputs in a situation. Like the delicious aroma of food that permeates a kitchen, it seduces and delights the senses. Or, where people are involved, it suggests that contact within a given social context is based on sensations, rather than (say) thoughts, intuitions or emotions. The presence of the card Sensuality does not mean that copulation is in progress or is imminent! The vast majority of sensual arousal arises from a glance, the touch of a hand, the response to a film, novel, publicity image – so it can be an inner reaction, as well as an outer expression. Sensuality, to borrow a phrase, is a broad church.
Divination summary
sexual actions, thoughts or feelings; body exploration with a partner (or alone); journey of discovery through the sensual; grounding partnership in the physical dimension; casual, peripheral or momentary sexual response; sensation-based interaction, pleasures of the senses, sensory stimulation, such as by food.
____________________________________________________
[1] Psychific: of the psyche
[2] Certain Spirit-polarised people have tried to suggest that psychific fulfilment does not come through Union
of the Spirit with the Will at all, but through suppression and elimination of it. Rainring considers this not just undesirable but factually impossible: the universal psyche is bi-polar, and there are NO opt-outs available!!
[3] Remember, these terms in Rainring refer always to the energies in question, not to the genders. Hence, lesbian / homosexual relationships are included in these definitions
NOTES
1. Group 8 is concerned with the Conjugation between male and female, and Set 8 reprises this theme, being a description of the journey from the solitary individual, through to Union and beyond.
2. The individual entry is structured as in set 7: the section on meaning comprising general, specific and summary sections, in that order.
64. Need: group – spirit (1 violet/purple)
http://www.rainring.co.uk/Cards/Need/64.aspx
The Image
This is a night scene, with the full moon rising over an expanse of water, on which are silhouetted two swans. The foreground is dry land, with shingle, water plants and, on the right, the stump of a dead tree. A young naked woman straddles this stump. Her nakedness suggests that she is ‘moonstruck’ and her odd, uncomfortable posture implies that she may be involved in a solitary act of sexual arousal.
The meaning
Need:
1) the condition – requiring relief - of the individual emotionally, sexually, spiritually alone; 2) lack of essential prerequisites of health and well-being
A General
The card Need describes the condition of the individual who does not have an intimate partner, taking it as axiomatic that such a condition makes psychific[1] and spiritual wholeness impossible. We assign this card to the Spirit group, on the basis that once the contact with the Will polarity (in 65. Attraction) takes place, this begins the journey away from the solitary state of Need. Need exists at all levels: from the very basic one of the minimum requirement of food, warmth, sleep and so on, to the far more complex question of what is needful for psychific and spiritual wholeness and fulfilment. We shall deal mainly with the latter here.
B Specific
The intensity of Need varies greatly from one individual to another. If your Will (emotional) side is strong, when you have no partner you will experience acute feelings of neediness. If you are much more Spirit-sided, or your female side is severely repressed, you may feel very little need for a partner.[2] Again, body-centred people may experience Need more in terms of sexual than of emotional deprivation. At all events, felt Need is a de-stabiliser which is going to push you towards finding a partner. A sense of inadequacy, of failure readily attaches itself to the state of being single. You find it difficult to handle Need: it is not attractive to others, so you must attempt to hide it. If you have already had a partner, you will use the memory of this to try and give yourself moral support, counteracting your present lack of someone. You may well experience Need as an obsessive state – the search for a partner dominates your psyche.
You may well be confused by the force of this urge to escape from the solitary state of Need. However intense its sexual component, it is also driven by your heart – your need for emotional closeness and sympathetic vibration with another. Hence friendship - where there is no question of sexual attraction - can be a major palliative in your time of Need. But underpinning all the rest is the polarity issue: to be whole, we must unite with our polar opposite. You may also have a parallel movement in your inner world: to ‘make yourself attractive’ could well require working on yourself at some level. As for the opposition to Need, this comes from Need itself. In other words, when you are needy, you feel the need to get out of that distressing state as soon as possible.
To sum up, the central element in Need is the quest for the other. It is not only the need for sexual gratification, but above all the need for completion by the other polarity which provides the driving force of the single individual. Since outer and inner are but two sides of the same coin, there is a corresponding inner need for union: neither the emotional emptiness of Will Denial, nor the sense of being lost of Spirit Denial are conditions which bring any level of individual fulfilment. Finally, as we indicated at the beginning, the card Need can also refer to simple physical issues related to hunger, sleep deprivation and so on.
Divination summary
lack of a partner; unwelcome single status; sexual, emotional or spiritual frustration; inner polarisation and denial; emotional distress due to solitude; craving for companionship; urge towards psychific balance and fulfilment; lack of basic physical or psychological ingredients needed for well-being.
65. Attraction: group – will (2 red)
http://www.rainring.co.uk/Cards/Attraction/65.aspx
The Image
A young man and woman stand in front of a small fairground tent. He grasps her hands in his and they gaze into each other’s eyes. She wears a blue summer dress and matching sandals, he is in grey trousers, with a brown jacket and shoes. The tent is of a strong red, with symbols of the sun and moon displayed above it. It is set on grass among spiral trees. These natural elements are painted in a formalised style which lends a quality of other-worldliness and mystery to the whole scene.
The meaning
Attraction: the fundamental magnetic force between male and female which ensures pairing and proliferation.
A General
The second Love Ways card deals with the elemental condition of Attraction. This same word is in general use to describe both physical and psychological magnetism. This may suggest that psychological attraction, like its physical counterpart, is seen as being a natural phenomenon - we don’t choose Attraction, it chooses us. Attraction is the set 8 card belonging to the Will group, and it is precisely this attribute of magnetism which defines the Will. Although Attraction can be experienced as an inner phenomenon, it most characteristically concerns the outer world and the other, which is where we will direct most of our attention.
B Specific
This is a card which involves a complex mixture of emotions, actions and reactions. First, you will experience a strong element of losing control – you are in the grip of something stronger than you are. This produces two immediate reactions: first, a sense of inner unease, because your whole being is challenged; second, the desire to dominate the situation (in effect, the other person), in order to regain control. (In reality, submissive behaviour is a variation of this: the means by which, if you are this type of individual, you too seek to exert control of your circumstances, to minimise the sense of threat). Your opposition to Attraction, therefore, will come from deep within you, the part of you that is not ready to open the gates of your soul to…this unknown other. Paradoxically, another aspect of you feels already an impulse to protect and nurture this person. Furthermore, you project – imagine – the happy and fulfilled existence that may await you with this person. Part of you wants very much to achieve the goal of a shared life of harmony and balance with another. For, where relationship is concerned, the stakes are the highest possible: it is your opportunity for Completion: that is, for a true end to solitude, to your sense of never really being loved, accepted and understood.
In Attraction, you have not yet reached the stage of consummating your relationship. Nevertheless, because of the intensity and complexity of the emotions aroused, this state of Attraction is a shock to your system, and results in an unconscious withdrawal that you will likely not even be aware of. It counterbalances your conscious impulse to go towards the other.
The above refers to the big picture of Attraction. In a lighter vein, this card will occur when you ‘fancy’ someone in a quite casual context; also when you just feel drawn to a person for reasons unrelated to sex. On an inner level, it connotes your spirit being drawn to the feeling (will) aspect of yourself, and vice versa. Just as the stronger is the polarisation of two individuals, the more powerful the attraction between them, so in your inner world the more active your two poles, the greater your inner psychic dynamic. For example, to produce a great novel, the writer must have both a breadth of vision and understanding (spirit) and an acute sensitivity to emotion (will). The degree of success in marrying these two constituents in a harmonious manner will determine the quality of the finished work.
Divination summary
personal magnetism of yourself or another; drawing or being drawn to someone, whether by sexuality, charisma, common attitudes and interests…; hesitation, doubt, unease over a new relationship; losing control, wanting to assert oneself; desire to protect and nurture; projecting and fantasizing about a future romance; imagining harmony and fulfilment with another; corresponding inner dynamic of your own psyche.
66. Explosion: group – heart (3 green)
http://www.rainring.co.uk/Cards/Explosion/66.aspx
The Image
In the foreground, a young man and woman, infatuated, gaze into each other’s eyes. They also hold each other physically, and we surmise that they are in love and either are or will shortly be in the making-love stage of their relationship. Immediately behind, and towering over them in an apparently threatening manner is a large brown bear. However, a vertical line of toggles in the centre of its chest tell us that the ‘bear’ is a costumed man, not an actual animal. The ‘bear’ is being held back by an individual in a fool’s outfit, who is holding it by a chain and grinning broadly.
The Meaning
Explosion: 1) the surge of orgasmic energy occasioned by the fusion of male and female; 2) falling in love; 3) dramatic event, upheaval, violent outburst
A General
Explosion is the set 8 card belonging to the heart group, and its core meaning concerns the coming together of male and female in the moment of orgasm. The meeting point of Spirit and Will is seen as being at the mid-point between the two, in the heart. The attraction between the poles must, because it is inherent in the nature of humans, lead to coupling. This produces children, but in our view the latter is not its driving force. Male, female and the magnetic force between them is, for Rainring, an inherent property of the psyche. The outer result is children; the inner one is Creation in some other form.
B Specific
Your inner aspect here is one of sympathy, in the sense of a harmonisation between yourself and another. What you and your partner – your polar opposite - have in common is obsession: the imperative unconscious drive to unite. We tend to refer to this as the sex drive, but behind the physical drive is a psychific one. Your relationship is very much in the moment: unreflective, unselfconscious. You are carried away by the magnetic force of the attraction. This is a primitive energy overwhelming any sophisticated defences which you might have attempted to build against it. You are in the grip of powerful unconscious forces which are capable of shaking your existence to its foundations. At the same time, this is a kind of forced programme of education – learning that your body has its own agenda, and you cannot always keep it under control, i.e. subjugate it, using reason or emotion; you can be precipitated out of the fortress of your self-control and exposed to whatever life outside the walls has to teach you. There are occasions when your mind has to take a back seat, and you will have to wait for the force of desire to spend itself somewhat before it can return again to take part in your communication.
The opposition to this force is going to come from the context of long-term relationship at which you are trying to work. Such a conjugation-type relationship involves having to face many painful episodes, many moments of estrangement and alienation from your partner. If the force of Explosion between you and a third party intrudes itself into such a conjugation situation, it is going to add greatly to the difficulties of that long-term conjugation relationship. On the other hand, where there is a long-term relationship which is never going to achieve anything, the external force of Explosion, with its potential to split such a relationship apart, will on balance be a beneficial force.
To sum up, Explosion is a short-term phenomenon, and will cause you serious problems. In this state you lack balance: you are all ‘us’ and no ‘me’. You are intoxicated with the euphoria of infatuation and you cannot back off from it: It is your most powerful experience since the infant bond with your mother. It is going make you resist the demands of your self for space and light. But, in this moment of Explosion, all that is no more than a small cloud on the horizon.
Explosion also has an inner sense, which might arise at moments of exceptional psychific activity, such as for example during an intense phase of creative work by an artist or writer. If you are undergoing a major inner upheaval, particularly where Spirit-Will conjunction is involved, this card could show in a reading. Finally, it has been found that the Unconscious extends the meaning of Explosion to refer to any dramatic situation which the querant may encounter.
Divination meanings
being in love; infatuation, euphoria, loss of personal boundaries; infantile bonding emotions; living in the moment; being in the grip of unconscious contents; inflation; abandon; abandonment of responsibilities; repression of needs of self.
67. Sensuality: group – form (4 orange)
http://www.rainring.co.uk/Cards/Sensuality/67.aspx
The Image
The scene is an interior. A young woman sits naked on a bed, perhaps on the floor. She leans her back against a bolster, her right arm being extended along it. Her left leg is bent with the knee raised, the right leg lies along the ground, bent at the knee and tucked under the other leg. Her left arm is draped loosely over her right thigh. She gazes languidly at her partner who lies on his left side nearby, the lower half of his body under bed covers. His eyes are closed and his arm is outstretched so that his hand rests on the upper part of her inner thigh. The entire scene is painted in shades of orange, and conveys a sense of satiety after sex.
The meaning
Sensuality: the expression of explosion in physical (sensory) terms; the sexual, the sensual and the sensory – inhabiting the realm of sense.
A General
Sensuality is the Love Ways card belonging to the orange Form group and is thus concerned with the physical aspect of relations between male and female.[3] However, the definition of Sensuality is much wider than this, and it refers in general to the predominant presence of the senses, seeming often to be closely linked to the card Sensation. In order to understand Sensuality it must be borne in mind that, whilst this is a fundamentally body-based vibration, other aspects of the psyche are nevertheless involved and must be taken into account.
B Specific
You are in tune with physical or material aspect of attraction, which expresses itself as sensual and sexual contact. This involves your spirit, will and heart energies being taken on a journey through form, rather as a blacksmith will rework metal, given a sufficient temperature, in order to temper it (make it tougher and more resilient). Sensual contact is a very powerful way of bonding individuals.
During periods of great sensual intensity, you are in a position of pilgrimage; an explorer of the realm of the senses. This exploration partly concerns the degree to which attunement with the physical can influence your psyche as a whole, and partly involves the extreme proximity of your self to that of another. The normal relationship position in Sensuality is that of Radiance, in which neither you nor your partner are dominating or submitting. In fact, sensual relations provide the opportunity for you both to play with the whole range of relationship options, but in an essentially co-operative mode of interaction. Where a repetitive pattern of domination and submission emerges, your relationship is likely to end up mired in a swamp and unable to evolve towards Union.
Sensual compatibility is a vital relationship ingredient. You may have great respect for someone’s mind, the tenderest feelings towards them, but if you dislike their body odour or the way they hold themselves, they cannot be a suitable partner for you. From a distance, you have a vision of what this person can be in your life; to be naked with them is to put that vision to the test. The primacy of Sensuality is a phase: it is the context in which you express yourselves towards each other with the utmost intensity. But your spirit side will not be content to remain in the state of inflation typically associated with intense sensual contact: it desires a return to the balance of clarity, upon which to build for the longer term.
In the wider context, Sensuality indicates the presence of sensory or sensuous inputs in a situation. Like the delicious aroma of food that permeates a kitchen, it seduces and delights the senses. Or, where people are involved, it suggests that contact within a given social context is based on sensations, rather than (say) thoughts, intuitions or emotions. The presence of the card Sensuality does not mean that copulation is in progress or is imminent! The vast majority of sensual arousal arises from a glance, the touch of a hand, the response to a film, novel, publicity image – so it can be an inner reaction, as well as an outer expression. Sensuality, to borrow a phrase, is a broad church.
Divination summary
sexual actions, thoughts or feelings; body exploration with a partner (or alone); journey of discovery through the sensual; grounding partnership in the physical dimension; casual, peripheral or momentary sexual response; sensation-based interaction, pleasures of the senses, sensory stimulation, such as by food.
____________________________________________________
[1] Psychific: of the psyche
[2] Certain Spirit-polarised people have tried to suggest that psychific fulfilment does not come through Union
of the Spirit with the Will at all, but through suppression and elimination of it. Rainring considers this not just undesirable but factually impossible: the universal psyche is bi-polar, and there are NO opt-outs available!!
[3] Remember, these terms in Rainring refer always to the energies in question, not to the genders. Hence, lesbian / homosexual relationships are included in these definitions
