the big picture - our PLACE in the cosmic drama
The word 'World' itself somehow evokes 'a place'. Also, it is a Saturn card (at least in some systems), and Saturn is a lot about 'placement' (in mundane terms, placement in society, career, etc, but it is far more complex, of course). World card is about 'your place in the world'. For me it says: you are exactly where you need to be, for your best, for your highest prosperity, even though you may not see it or recognize it at this moment - and the latter is very crucial. World card many times surpasses the ordinary, everyday consciousness. That is why, in my experience, the card can be so puzzling.
World is a vast card - it is THE WORLD - and our mundane consciousness is so tiny, narrow, so rigid, so small…. We many times cannot comprehend what is really happening, all the connections, the true reason, the true lesson, why things fell into
place as they did...we want to be stuck in our little place, barricaded and 'safe', not looking around. Our personal worlds can be so small...but the world web, the whole cosmic picture is so huge.
World card is about the alignment of the personal soul with the cosmic soul, expansion of the personal consciousness to the level of vast, even cosmic comprehension. It is not just about the big picture, but many times also about the 'cosmic picture'. And this is many times an extremely hard lesson.
The usually portrayed naked figure dancing in the middle is like a person surrounded by this huge web-world/cosmos,
fiding her place in it. Do we always understand where our place is? Not at all. It takes time and experience (a Saturn lesson) to slowly get this kind of comprehension. Where all the pieces of the puzzle are put together. Osho Zen tarot, for instance, calls this card 'Conclusion' and it depicts a face, made of puzzle pieces, where the last piece of the puzzle is being put on the third eye. This is it, the final comprehension, the final insight, the true understanding and vision.
However, this is by no means always a delightful experience... It can be, in fact, pretty overwhelming, even horrifying, painful and much depends on the level of consciousness of the person, their understanding of things in general, how they 'see the world', what their 'world-view' and also spiritual view is. Do they see just this small fragment or can they see the big picture, even cosmic picture? Do they see 'the cosmic drama', do they understand the big, underlying reasons and shifts? This decides how they accept 'conclusions', endings, cycles, do they cooperate or struggle…hence World card provokes so many different responses.
As a Saturn card (at least in some systems), World is also about lessons learnt. I see it as a 'graduation' card, this is where you get your diploma: for challenges and exams well done. In this sense, it is a great card, yes, it frees you from previous debts, patterns, energies...but the stripping off of these energies may not be pleasant at all.
I was also exploring the World card a lot, trying to see its meaning...I also refused to see it as 'ending', but in my case, it certainly meant 'the end', that is, of a relationship, of deep love.
It was a painful, heart-breaking, horrible, devastating end that I tried to avoid, push away…- I kept getting the World card and yes, the relationship indeed came to its final phase, it was just 'the best that was possible'. It was for the best, but I couldn't really accept it at the time, so I struggled. It ended not because we didn't fit or want it, but because it was simply not possible to stretch it further. I did my best, he did his best. It was just as far as we could go.
In my case, World certainly predicted the end, the breaking down of the relationship, the final step...and it was extremely hurtful for me. Months later I started to get the Death card - when I finally started to emotionally accept, GRIEVE, allow my feelings to die, transform and let the relationship die internally as well...(Death card as Scorpio experience of the underworld, release, transformation). Then, the World card was not coming up at all, just the Death card.
Of course, cards can be read in many ways, many levels, but in my case, the World was saying: 'see the big picture, you are at the right place (better off without this man)', even though emotionally I couldn't digest it. I digested it with the Death card, but the with World card I found myself exactly where I needed to be - alone, without this relationship that was in many ways detrimental to me, not good for me, and freed from my own emotional drama and old, ingrained patterns that I managed to work through, and move further, armed with a great lesson in relationships, love, and inner journey.
Indeed, the World card was showing a 'great outcome', it was showing me that I am free, matured, that things will never be the same, but at the time, I couldn't see it. I see it now, in retrograde, and I know I was exactly where the world/cosmos/life/whole/existence wanted me to be - for my growth, for my liberation (so that I can dance naked and free from the past, as that figure in the card
), for deepening of my heart and my capacity to love. It was so hard, so painful, but it was indeed
for my best.