Wheel of Change - 7s

darwinia

When does confusion become anxiety? When I look at these sevens I am almost totally confused. Feel free to help me overcome my anxiety <g>

7 of Wands

Fireworks, carnival rides, celebration, tree and flowers, summer fun, exuberance, joy. Man enhancing and overriding (pun!) the natural world with his own light against the night sky, more brilliant and colourful than the stars.

Yikes, I don't see the classic R-W confrontation here or the victory of defense. Understand that when I say that, I am not objecting to the change with rigidity, I am merely puzzled as to meaning.

I never got the association of juggled objects or illusion and diverting attention. She talks about creativity and giving yourself praise for that, which I sort of picked up in man's creative light. I often get confused with the 7 and 9 of Wands anyway, and this only sent me into a spin of bafflement.

7 of Swords

Papyrus, stone and chisels, tools to carve hieroglyphs. Hidden messages, learning, having the tools to speak and teach. Leaving something for history.

Her message was pretty clear here, but the 7 of Swords in the R-W is about deception, trickery, theft, sneaking away with someone's property--that sort of thing. Here she depicts the Rosetta stone. Help me I'm falling off the cliff of perception. She says it's about communication and understanding, about enhancing and illuminating the message. Translation and meaning, understanding. Which is great, the symbolism makes this clear, but it doesn't seem to have much to do with sneakiness.

I don't get it. Where is the dishonesty, the classic meaning? I don't have to adhere to the classic meaning, but it's so hard to get a fix without some sort of marker. I like this card, and being keen on history myself, I can instantly see where she's going with regard to interpretation and enlightenment but I cannot resolve what I see as a huge difference in meaning to the R-W.
 

darwinia

The Other Two

7 of Disks

Various plates of diverse grains on a tablecloth with bright patterns and suns. The locust or grasshopper and mouse are pests that eat grain as it grows but also in storage. You may feel you are taken care of, supplied with enough sustenance, but pests abound to deplete your food.

SO, I seem to have been baffled again. Classic R-W = success without fulfillment--the disheartened man in a garden of plentiful pentacles.

Grain is a staple food, the sun ties in with yearly seasons and harvest, and the sun's energy living in the grain. Other species exist and nature and pestilence is beyond our control in some cases. Respect, honour, and recognize others, yourself, and the cycles of time. Provide for others, help them to provide for themselves, and provide personal nourishment.

Okay, this might tie in with seeing what you have, the provisions and fulfillment in front of you, but she goes beyond that and it starts to get confusing again for me.

7 of Cups

Offerings to the God(s). Appeasement to keep the volcano from erupting. Bounty and blessings amidst threat. Three different coloured lakes. Cold and hot offerings, harnessing fire, but not being able to harness the volcano of nature.

I always think of this as the Daydreamer card, imagining what you'd like in life or possibilities, dreams.

Here she talks about emotional balance and the balance of creative and destructive forces, keeping emotions in check before they explode like a volcano. Focus on ways to diffuse passion and obsession.

This was one card that almost made sense to me, especially when speaking of obsessions and controlling passion. The R-W card looks a bit obsessive, as if his focus becomes obsessed with wants and riches, he can't let the passion go, perhaps even the resentment building at not having the things he wants. The volano and the mountainous heights all speak of emotion, so this one was fairly clear once I studied it a bit.

The other three were not. ;-0)) Do help me obtain clarity.
 

galadrial

7 of Wands

I gave up on trying to figure this one out by looking and dug into my books. "Spiritual Tarot", by Echos, Mueller and Thomson, says "Who or what is at the unseen ends of the rods? One view is that they represent hidden aspects of yourself, which you may have difficulty seeing or accepting. They are now attempting to get your attention." Alexandra seems to focus on these self aspects as they are played out in the world, ie: as seperate parts of ones life; job, home, hobbies, etc., and has drawn a symbolic landscape of them. Some we are showing off (fireworks), some carefully juggling (the batons), and some are repetitive cycles (the merry-go-round). She seems to feel there is a tendency toward imbalance in how we approach these aspects- to shirk working with some energies and try to focus exclusively on others- but that the lesson of the card is to have a passion for life that can value all parts of ourselves and thus all outer experiences.
I think Nancy Shavick's take, from her book "The Tarot", ties in as well, "This wand illustrates the necessity for keeping your energy level high and staying interested in a certain matter. You need to keep positive about an involvement that requires constant activity for you to maintain...There is a tendency in this card to give up and stop caring to avoid the responsibility and hard work of being involved...the message here is not to give up but to force yourself into applying the extra effort to stay interested."
 

darwinia

Yeah, there is a great value in consulting other books. I know one should stick to intuition and largely I do, but in a deck like this where everything is so different it's nice to have a quiet consultation with a book.

When I started using tarot I didn't have a R-W deck, so conventional meaning didn't register. Then I found it helpful buy a Universal Waite and study up a bit on this deck because many books use the symbolism and talk directly about this specific imagery.

Now, the time comes to let go of that again. So after reading Galadrial's comments, the penny seems to drop into place. I can look at this card and see this meaning and talk about the story and relate it to other cards.

Similar to what happened with my view of the 6 of Cups in this deck. You just have to perceive the story in a different way.

Thanks!!
 

galadrial

7 of Swords

A common thread in my books on this card is to focus on the fact that the RWS figure is acting alone. This individual is acting in his own self interest whether the group appoves or not, thus the need for stealth. But what group is he setting himself apart from? When the tower of Babel fell and groups formed according to which language they spoke, there was born the tendency to act in the interests of others of one's own tongue. So, pictorially, I compared the two cards this way. He can see these others as alien, use that as a justification to sneak into their camp and make off with their swords and not feel too bad about himself; after all, his group will likely commend him. But he and his fellows remain isolated from the other group who now bear them ill will, their own suspicion of stangers fully confirmed. That is one type of individualism. Or, he can go against the prejudices of his group, walk into the alien camp bearing a Rosetta-type stone and some chisels, and begin an exchange of ideas. His group may treat him as outcast; then again, if the two groups start exchanging goods, eventually intermarrying, etc., he could be hailed as a peacemaker. Or perhaps he will accept his outcast status as preferable to continuing in ignorant prejudice, be adopted by the alien group and teach his children both languages.
The card seems to emphasize the risk inherent in acting in one's own interest. I think Alexandra's card is focusing on the Sword's as representing communication and asking us to look at our communication patterns and to utilize the wands energy to put in the effort and take the risks necessary to really communicate well, thus enriching rather than isolating the self. All the different languages represented seem to indicate that special sense of risk inherent in communicating with someone quite different from ourselves. In that light, the RWS figure could be showing the risk of not communicating- we can justify acting unscrupulously toward those we feel no connection to, but we will remain isolated from them and foment distrust.
 

darwinia

Wow, good interpretation, thanks for posting with such clarity.

I haven't started the 8s yet as I think Belladonna might be on holidays or something and you are still contributing in this thread. If you fancy starting a thread on the 8s though go aheadv and I'll pitch in.

If you find it too much to do all four eight cards, just do one maybe and we can discuss that for a bit?

Or you can carry on here with the other two 3 cards as you fancy.

Thanks.
 

Wildchild

I'm still here...following along silently. I've been side tracked by the Herbal Tarot lately. :D
 

darwinia

Aha!

I wondered where you had gone.

So, you have a new deck? Well, that's good in any case, plus you're still reading the threads.

Now, If I could get you to buy the decks and comment in the William Blake tarot or the Rohrig study groups.....<g>

Hope you are having a nice summer out there.
 

galadrial

7 of Pentacles

I can hear Tom Petty singing "The waiting is the hardest part, every day you get one more yard, you take it on faith, you take it to the heart, but the waiting is the hardest part." According to "Tarot as a Way of Life", by Karen Zondag, "Past dealings or ideas are coming to fruition; but there is nothing more you can do about them and you just have to wait and see. The trouble with this seven card is that developments are taking place that are important to you, but there is no pressure you can bring to bear on them or guidance you can give them." In "The Tarot", by Nancy Shavick, she says "The task of the Seven of Disks is to tend to every stage of a plant's development, from the seed stage (Ace), to the bearing of mature fruit. You nurture the plant with care and commitment, watering it regularly and weeding when necessary. If you do, by the ten of disks, the harvest will overwhelm your expectations. First you must suffer through the waiting period of an entire season. You cannot rush the process of growth and should be prepared to be unnaturally patient during this time."
Discouragement could easily rear it's head, and I think Alexandra's card addresses this (which is to say, I think it can be looked at from that perspective, though what she actually had in mind and whether she was even considering the RWS traditions, is beyond me). You may not be able to affect the processes you are tending, but there are things you can do to nuture yourself so as not to become discouraged, and to bolster your faith in the end results. You first nurture your self esteem (after all, some fruits are already showing, you are not tending a barren plot), by seeing your uniqueness in a positive light, by teaching others what you have learned so far, and by cultivating (if I may be pardoned the term:) a benign attitude toward the destructive elements that are beyond your control (I'm assuming she means setbacks, or red tape or some such, and not elements so destructive that they destroy the whole project). You nourish yourself on both the physical and soul level with enjoyable food and activities. And you nurture your faith in the outcome by taking the long (or macrocosmic) view of cycles, which always include this waiting period, but which eventually come to full harvest.
I like your take on the 7 of Cups, so I will pass on it and give my impressions of at least one of the 8's, hopefully tomorrow.
 

darwinia

galadrial said:
I can hear Tom Petty singing "The waiting is the hardest part, every day you get one more yard, you take it on faith, you take it to the heart, but the waiting is the hardest part."

So maybe we should be free falling, or moving into the great wide open. Ah shoot, maybe we are just rebels without a clue? <g>

You may not be able to affect the processes you are tending, but there are things you can do to nuture yourself so as not to become discouraged, and to bolster your faith in the end results.

This is good, I especially like that about not being able to affect the processes. More free falling.

Oh yeah, feel it?