So many thought-provoking replies. It is, I think, a deep deep card, and thanks to you all and sleeping on it yet again, I'm starting to move away from stereotypical thought and am starting to Get this card.
In my life, I have been present at 2 births as Mother of the Mother, and Labor coach. they were very different. the one 22 years ago was techo-barbaric, and I wonder how any of us made it through with the miracles of modern medicine all over the place, dictating it all, and the constant threat of a Caesarian, if we didn't comply.
It wasn't as Barbaric as my own birth where I was left alone in a room for the whole labor ad then tied down on the delivery table to make up for it. And then they tried to knock me out. My daughter was born into the world in a spectacle of me fighting to stay conscious and be treated as well as you would an animal birthing.
But the 3rd birth, 1 1/2 years ago...that was different. That was natural. Left to the natural process, no drugs, no monitors, not "checking" for dilation during contractions. And the birth itself was amazing. She laid on her side, lifted her leg, pushed hard, and out came a baby. And--here's the thing--she had been like an Animal a bay during the labor. she didn't want to be touched, she didn't want to talk, she crouched on the floor, striking out at anyone who came too close. She was lost in the pain, and our hearts were breaking for her, as she labored on, and on and on for what seemed like forever, a living curse.
But the moment that baby was born, she morphed into perfect love. In that instant when he came out, all there was in the world for her, was him. Everything else was forgotten. she would have done it all over again, in that instant, if that was required. she sat up and reached for him with both hands. And they were complete. I've never seen anything like it.
Labor and birthing are the hardest work in the world. But what you get, if it goes right...is miraculous.
And I do absolutely get this part of the card. And what I'm starting to get, thanks to you all, is that this kind of devil is very much the devil we know...and don't want to acknowledge..and that if we go with the process that is in front of us, we have the power to change our own darkness to light. At great cost, mind you...but if we are willing to work hard enough, and let go of what gets in our way...we can get there from here.
And it seems to me that we do fear what we are birthing, a great deal of the time. The unknown, the unfamiliar. The perhaps deformed. that which will destroy the life we had. OK, it was imperfect, but at least we knew what it was..and now, what? And all the priorities get shifted, if we do it right. The terrible responsibility of it all. It's so terrifying that only a process that all but tears us apart allows us to bring forth the next stage of our lives. At the end of the process almost anything looks good. All newborn babies are beautiful, if only to their mothers. OK, I'm waaay too dramatic here, but it's still true.
So thank you. Thank you all for your help. Every opinion is being valuable to me. And I hope lots more are posted on this thread, because this is utterly fascinating, and, I think, valuable to us all in this community.