Wheel of Change - Threes

3 of Wands

The first card I scanned in to show people when I got this deck was the 3 of Wands. Boom--energy, electricity, protons, electrons, fire, movement, power, creativity. I immediately liked it and I also liked her comparison to the yearning for individuality and independence that we feel in adolescence. Remember that excitement, the feeling of the journey ahead, the omniscience you felt when young with everything ahead of you, and such pure potential, such a feeling of goals ahead of you? This card is exciting and I much prefer it to the classic R-W deck. It gives me that feeling of possibilities and the world opening up.
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3 of Cups

This is not exuberant or celebratory as a "dancing" 3 of Cups like in the Osho Zen, or the riotous three women in the bath in Songs for the Journey Home. Her take seems to be more focused on fertility and beginnings of life.

Growth, life spilling out, the sexuality of the natural world. The Nile flows through the desert and keeps the earth fertile. The lotus blooms when the Nile floods annually and the lotus stands for feminine sexuality as does the fish, which refers again to the vesica piscus of Sacred Geometry. Also the palms in the background are phallic in shape and the leaves symbolize spilling semen, while the water symbolizes deoth of emotion. She's got the continuity of seasons and birth here, which have a celebration and exuberance of their own I suppose.

What I really liked in this was the papyrus in front of the palms. The idea of taking the paper you make from papyrus and using it for drawing and writing to spread stories, philosophy, and culture. More birth, the birth of ideas and civilization. Quite a deeper meaning here than you might think at first glance but I really prefer the card in the Osho Zen with those three women kicking up their heels in the rain. ;-)
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3 of Disks

Immediately you see the work aspect of this card. Ants are known for their persistence and teamwork when getting the job done. Their ant burrow leads into a universe of stars and then she has the ammonite with spirals, natural form and symmetry (more Sacred Geometry), that echo the shape of galaxies in the universe. Interestingly, she points out in the book that ammonite was used for money by Native Americans so it is doubly significant for disks.

One thing about Pentacles or Disks, I always find some similarity between the 3 and the 8 which can get confusing. The 8 seems to be about skill and focus, perhaps apprenticeship, but the 3 is about mastering the skill and taking it to the world which she has shown nicely by having the galaxies uncovered by the work of the ants. I liked that.
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3 of Swords

Ooooh, so much more appealing than the heart with three swords stabbing it. More depth, more to get a story out of here. You can see some clear-cutting going on with denuded hills left with stumps. The swords hanging there have a very menacing look to them, but she has left open a bit of hope. Notice that the fallen tree is old and cracked, it might have fallen and died by itself and gone to waste but it has been culled for a useful purpose to make way for new trees. You can see a new tree on the right peeking up from among the ferns. Much of the forest is still there and a bird sits on a tree, so the menace is there, the pain of loss but *all* is not lost.

It doesn't have the brutality perhaps of the R-W card but she's got the disappointment and hurt nailed. Even if you aren't a conservationist you might sense the obliteration of the landscape and habitat as senseless when done with such force. Also a sense of over-reaction rather than a moderate response to what happens, with acknowledgement to both sides of the lumber issue, so you might take that same moderate "all is not lost" feeling into a personal situation.

As always, her cards are very interesting and the book is filled with lots of additional details.

Thoughts?

3 of Swords

I get more of a sense of personal control and responsibility from this card than I usually do with the 3 of Swords. While the overzealous cutting away acheived, on reflection, more harm than good, the pain engendered by that result is the needed catalyst for me to change my attitude/perspective. I can go forward from that point with more awareness and care when bringing my thoughts and actions to bear on a situation. And, though it may take a little time, have the reassuring sense that with a more moderate approach, my enviornment can regain it's balance.

Even though the 3 of Cups is more subtle, peaceful, gentle and quiet in this deck, one of the first thoughts that came to mind is "sharing." One cup to drink from. The need to love one another, share our feelings, express ourselves, listen to others, get along in order to successfully drink from one cup. The three fish swim in the same river. The are not separate from one another- the water connects them. Freedom to explore safely our sexuality and our intuition, our emotions and our feelings for others gives birth to beauty of the spirit.

The 3 of Disks: I think the fact that the ants work so perfectly, so harmoniously and so expertly with each other is why they are able to get so much done. Yes, they are skilled, but alone, they would not accomplish much. It is as a team that they reach their heights. And so I think that this card echoes what I usually associate with the 3 of Disks, appreciation, gratitude for the value of what is offered by each individual ant- er, person. Whether that is a skill, a product, or just the person's presence, they are valued for their inherent uniqueness and their role within a larger unit. These ants are more than drones, they play a vital role within our ecosystem and at a more micro level, within their own colony.

These cards are almost two sides of the same coin. Where the 3 of Cups encourages us to disregard our differences and see what we all share, the 3 of Disks values our individuality within the larger scheme of things.

galadrial said:

3 of Swords

I get more of a sense of personal control and responsibility from this card than I usually do with the 3 of Swords.

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Yes, it's your reaction to something that counts, and you always have control over that.

Some things aren't worth reacting to at all. A friend of mine just mentioned the 3 of Swords in the Hudes deck (which I just got) and the woman on that card is hanging on to one sword, like she is sad but reluctant to let it go.

But as you say, in this 3 of Swords there seems to be a message of more personal control. In any case, they're all better than the R-W card.

The artwork in this deck is so beautiful. Even in the 3 of Swords card. But the felled tree, especially the wide girth of it, indicating the age and, to me, the magesty and sacredness, still stirs up feelings of sorrow and betrayal in me. I think this image reflects the terrible destruction we continue to reek on our planet and the ignorance, self gratification, and refusal to take responsibility that motivates it. However, I think Andrea Genetti has a way of reminding us that the pain we inflict on others is ulimately inflicted on ourselves.

My brother is always in a band. He plays bass. I cannot help but think of him when I see the 3 of Wands. It reminds me of his incredible passion and the goals he envisions for himself and his music. Every time they jam together, every time they play a show they are taking another step towards their aims. More than that, they are feeding their passion, nurturing their goals, helping them grow, taking action to bring their plans for the future together.

3 of Cups

I was just seeing this card in my mind and the size of the cup struck me. It seemed to represent emotional expansiveness; a sense of being wide open and ready to share, thus the large size and two handles. And this expansiveness is not superficial, as it is resting on deep waters and the roots of the flowering emotions (lotus blossoms) go deep. I can see the fish as swimming in the past or in the unconcious and representing previous harmonious interactions that led to the surfacing of this offering. The tranquil setting allows for vulnerability without fear.

galadrial said:

3 of Cups

I was just seeing this card in my mind and the size of the cup struck me. It seemed to represent emotional expansiveness; a sense of being wide open and ready to share, thus the large size and two handles. And this expansiveness is not superficial, as it is resting on deep waters and the roots of the flowering emotions (lotus blossoms) go deep.

Click to expand...

Ooooh, I particularly like this bit about expansiveness and being wide open. Reminds me of that Tom Petty song Into the Great Wide Open--"a rebel without a clue" kind of reminds me of the Fool, and who is more wide open than that?

I'm just off to post on the fours.

Three of Disks

Here in the physical realm, the "action" inevitably takes the form of “work”. The use of the ants to demonstrate this shows the innumerable small ways that one can make a difference and contribute in the world. The ants’ activity has revealed treasures from the past and has inadvertently separated the grains of dirt into different sizes, as one can observe at the entrance of many ants’ nests.

Through the entrance, we see the spiral galaxies spinning off into the distance. They echo the fossilised ammonite forms, and in doing so they remind the viewer of the constancy of life and death, the great spiral in and out as we are reborn again and again. By showing the spirals of the galaxies being revealed through the ants’ efforts, Genetti has urged us to see the bigger picture. The appearance of the card in a reading might mean that the querent is blinkered to the implications or consequences, or possible rewards, of his or her actions. In a way, it is a gentle reproof to wake up and try to look beyond one’s small world, but it is also a hopeful omen, a light at the end of the tunnel.

Each ant could be understood as a representative, a small cog, in the great picture, some grand design that the ant species has for its own destiny. Each ant acts only as it knows how; its behaviour is programmed into it by long evolution. Some move toward the entrance, some away; all have their own business to attend to. They are the picture of industriousness and cooperation. They also represent an element of self-sacrifice, because no one ant has a sense of individuality. This highlights the difference between a colony (in the ant sense) and a community (in the human sense). A colony uses its members to further the “greater good” without taking into consideration or even valuing individual needs and desires. A community, though, respects and upholds the individual’s right to pursue a dream or desire. In this light, the card might highlight the querent’s need to express their own direction as distinct from the mainstream, or perhaps a tendency to repress this individuality in others.

\m/ Kat

Three of Wands

This dangerous-looking card represents one person’s struggle for recognition and input in the world. The suit of Wands represents the spark of life which gives a person, animal, plant – anything living – their individual existence and consciousness. Therefore, the Three shows the angst that happens when a person begins to realise their separateness from the world, and tries to carve a niche for themselves in their own way. This is inevitably a time of unrest and conflict as the people around the person concerned learn to adjust to a new force in their world.

The guitars symbolise expression through creative action; electric guitars are still seen as a symbol of the rock ‘n’ roll world, the magnet for teen angst and rebellion. The fire backing the three guitars shows uncontrolled emotions and energy, dangerous to everyone concerned.

Yet the three guitars are plugged into one another – eventually, a new personality finds its place and is accepted in the community. Their own brand of expression is incorporated into the cultural norm and adds a tiny bit of that individual to the world. The image speaks of immediacy, but follows through with a promise of one’s own tiny speck of immortality – echoed in the stars, scattered like jewels on the limitless black sky.

\m/ Kat

Three of Cups

The card of unification in the suit of the emotive world could only be expressive, and confronting. More than a third of the card is “underwater”, and the dim depths promise all manner of mystery and fearful revelation. The fish that swim up are messengers, carrying the conscious understanding of our own emotional responses and inclinations. Fish are feminine in association, being watery creatures. Here, they show the expression of a person’s own feelings, which is how we reach out to others. This is the “action” represented by the Threes – linking our own feelings to those of another person, or people.

The lotus flowers show the potential of unity with another – beauty and transcendent life. Lotuses symbolise transformation from one state to another, because the bulb grows in the filth on the bottom of a stagnant body of water, grows up out of the darkness towards the light and reveals its inner glory to the sun. The lotus is a potent sexual symbol of the feminine, as well, and so announces this card’s affinity with the sexual element of relating to another person. Sex raises many complex emotions whose exact origin or cause is unknown – all we know is that they come from that mighty current of water that underpins our existence and connects us all with each other.

With so much feminine symbolism, it was necessary to balance the image with some masculine energy, which appears in the phallic forms of the palm trees and papyrus on the shores. In this card, the water is overwhelmingly passive, absorbing and feminine, leaving the shoreline to be the masculine entity. Where the two meet in these calm waters, the murky depths begin to generate all manner of mystery and complexity.

\m/ Kat