Lapis Philosophorum

Today is the shortest day of the year. From now on the light will slowly become stronger by each day.

Yule – Winter Solstice: – Dec 21st This card shows us how best to connect to the Light within and without – it symbolizes the Birth of the Sun.

I drew The Queen of Pentacles. She is sitting on her throne with a drum and a bone.  She is connected to the ground and the earth, nature and fertility in the shape of the white Hare or Rabbit behind her. It is still winter, both spring is on it way, as the snowdrops are telling us.

This card is about being grounded to the hearth and to the earth, and being connected to presence and process, to be drawn to sensual pleasures as food or flowers. Now – for me to connect with light is simply to be earthbound and pragmatic. To be patiently waiting for light to return.

It’s quiet now, and almost full moon. The candles are lit, the deep blue reading cloth is laid out and I’m about to draw the first card in the 12-cards circle of the Sacred Days of Yule spread.

To night it is about dreams and dreaming:

1. Mother Night of Dreams: – Dec 20th This card reminds us to look for a particular message in our dreams tonight. The ancients believed that our dreams on this night foretold some of the important events in the coming year.

I drew the Magician – a very powerful character.

He is standing in the circle of Stonehenge, at Summer Solstice, the exact opposite time of the year from now. At Stonehenge the union of the Divine feminine and the Divine Masculine was celebrated, and now the Magician is ready, with all his tools and power to make that union possible. He is reaching his right arm towards the sky, while pointing his left arm to the ground to channel the energy.

So what should I look for in my dreams tonight? Strong, impressive, frightening, masculine energy – Animus energy. Animus as the Wise man, the Magician, the healer. Interestingly, last year I drew Knight of Cups, a softer, romantic energy. A knight, though – but the Knight of the Heart.

This one is about magical power, about acknowledging the darkness and the shadow  sides of life, that I must face and endure if I am to be creative and whole.

So – what is this Yule-tide about, anyway?

In Danish it has been suggested that there may be a connection between the word Jul and Hjul (Wheel) as in the wheel of the year. Another word Guili signified a period of  midwinter celebrations from late December to the first days of January, determined by a lunar calendar.

Yule was a midwinter festival celebrated by Germanic and Nordic people as a celebrating of  the return of light at the winter solstice, but was later absorbed by Christianity. A yule log was lit at the hearth of the house, and the celebrations lasted as long as it was still burning or glowing.

It has also been suggested that it was a blót or a drinking festival in honor of the german and norse gods Thor and/or Odin, and scholars have linked the celebrations to the myth or legend of the Wild Hunt.

Yule was celebrated for a fertile and peaceful season and consisted of a fertility sacrifice, which is inherent in the concept of blót which means a sacremental meal or feast, with sacrifices of food or animals.

So, what are we celebrating? The return of the light and the sun, fertility, prosperity, the hope of peace and the happy expectations of a new Beginning. One circle has come full – a new circle is starting all over. So it is definitively a period of passage from dark to light, and thereby it signifies something holy or sacred – also for us modern pagans/heathens.

With these words I’ll start my Sacred Days of Yule Spread.

It is now again time for the Sacred Days of Yule Spread. As always I’m using The DruidCraft Tarot created by Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm and beautifully illustrated by Will Worthington. I simply adore this deck. Especially the Star, which you can see on top of the pile of the cards  on the image.

From monday and during the holidays I’ll be posting every day here and in the Aeclectic. Starting this weekend though, with a post on the Yule.

Hope you will join in.

This time the two cards in the Little Cross don’t seem to opposite each other. On the contrary they point in the same direction. Actually what I asked was something like how can I keep and nurture my energy? So one should think, that this is all about Fire. But No. The answer is Water.

So we have the Knight of Vessels standing in the lake, gathering  water in his vessel. According to the LWB he is collecting information from the unconsciousness, which is of course exactly what the water symbolizes. But there is always the danger of getting more than bargained for or to get in too deep. I don’t need to be foolish and just take the plunge.

I need to be awake and aware, I’ve already gotten the message, I just have to take notice. The fish is the message – according to the Alchemical Study Group – the Knight just have to be aware of it:

“[You] may be getting a message “out of the blue,” perhaps in the form of a synchronicity. It is an unexpected emotional satisfaction. Maybe you’ve already gotten it, and like the knight, need to take notice. Open your eyes to what is around you.”

And what is the fish then? A BIG fish. The Ace of Vessels, no less. An extremely interesting card, I think. A fish carrying a vessel on it’s back, wherein floats a heart shaped vessel in blood (?) from where grows a vine with two bunches of blue grapes.

The vessel symbolizes the alchemical retort, wherein the philosophers stone can be transformed, and everything about the card indicates that Love is the agent or catalysator of this process:

“The card points out that both the goal and the source of emotions, represented by the heart in the vessel, is the need to give and receive love. Love is the very source of life, and the goal of love is to be fruitful. Rejoice and release an out-flowing of love, and allow its returning bounty into your soul, for then the alchemical vessel of the heart shall sustain new life.”

This card is also about finding one’s purpose in life, according to the LWB. And since it is about transformation by Love, there seems to be here an intertwining of meanings; that the purpose of life, any life, is Love.

Where the Staffs are about passionate love, Eros, the Vessels are about empathic love, or Agape. This is what this out-flowing of love seems to be about, when we are in the Realm of Water. But maybe this difference may not be that important – after all, love is love is love – like; a rose is a rose is a rose.

Images from The Alchemical Tarot, copyright Robert M. Place, are used with kind permission. Visit the Alchemical Tarot website.

Another  Little Cross on my current situation. For Situation I got The Moon and for Challenge I got 7 of Vessels – The Tools.

From the Alchemical Tarot Study Group:

“Tarot wisdom: The Moon represents the night before the dawn. It is a time of patience, rest and reflection, in which the soft energies of the moon compel us to enter the waters of the unconscious, the heart of the mystery.

As the embodiment of the white stone, the Moon represents a level of mastery in which we are in control of our actions, because we are conscious of psychological influences which remain unconscious to others. We have been purified, and now enjoy freedom of choice in our activities, and patient acceptance of the activities of others”.

This is about being able to wait, and wait – and accept the waiting. To be aware of what is going out on the deeper, irrational and unconscious levels, and look with acceptance on whatever is going on the surface. With the patience comes strenght and mastery.

The Moon  is the White Stone, which in Alchemy preceedes the making of the Red Stone – the challenge now is to store and contain this White Stone, this energy; and decide which vessel is best suited for the task, which one is the right.

The golden chalice at the bottom will be the end container for what is at the beginning just a tiny drop dripping out. It is not meant to be used  or put in action just yet. Or to out it differently, it is not ready to be drunk quite yet. It is not finished. It has to be carefully kept, until the mixture  is ripe and ready.

Another aspect of this card – apart for choosing the right vessel, is the aspect of inner guidance – I will know – quitly and intuitively how to store this Moon Energy – by  listening to my inner voice.

Images from The Alchemical Tarot, copyright Robert M. Place, are used with kind permission. Visit the Alchemical Tarot website.

Lately, I called off my search for purity and acknowledged that we can never be completely pure – because of our humanity.

Or should I more modestly say: I can not.

Anyway; No one is flawless, after all we all carry a shadow, and If we are not willing to accept it it will show it self in funny and disturbing ways. So it has to be brought forth consciously:

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you will bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you”  The Gospel of Thomas, v. 70

I guess it would be more modest just to look at this “within” me. The greeks knew that too: “Know thyself” was written over the Oracle of Delphi.

So to know oneself would be wise, I think.

But then again, what is wisdom? And how can I plea for wisdom – Fool as I am? Maybe it is exactly in accepting that fact that I’m a fool? I know these things, but I still I surprise myself – and therein lies my folly – and perhaps also my wisdom?

And how is purity compared to wisdom? I decided to ask the Alchemical Tarot this question:
One card for Purity and One for Wisdom. Purity: The Still and Wisdom: King of Staffs.

I think the Still in this respect is a bit sterile, the process of becoming pure will be looong and it will happen in some sort of closed circuit, isolated from the lived life. Fire is involved, but it is definitively under control. This is a controlled and protected environment, where no failures are permitted; Everything will blow up if the process gets disturbed.

The thing is. Life is not that way. Things get broken.  Things will be disturbed and challenged.

And then Wisdom; A dragon. Who should have thought that, now?

The King of Staffs is a dragon and Dragons usually guard the treasure in the fairy tales. Here the treasure is the Fire of Feeling. Of being alive. Of Consciousness (think Prometheus),  and of Wisdom.

Wisdom lies in knowing that you can’t live life and can’t reach for fire without getting burnt in the process of being a live and in  the process of reaching for fire. You have to meet your own dragons and demons, you have to face the Monster. But if you manage to challenge the Dragon King, you will have earned the fire. It will be yours.

So what will it be? Unlived life in searching for purity or the burn in reaching for wisdom? Actually I”m beginning to think we can’t have both.

Images from The Alchemical Tarot, copyright Robert M. Place, are used with kind permission. Visit the Alchemical Tarot website.

What can the tarot sage tell me about the writing project I’ve just started working on?

For the Situation I draw the Lion King of Coins and for the Challenge coming up is The Materialist or Ten of Coins.

Here, at the beginning, I’m mastering the proces perfectly, but the Challenge is warning me not to be to materialistic about it. After all, writing is a creative and  magical process, though it is also physical and practical (writers write, remember). Also I must think about what my drives are.

Why do I want to write? Am I, after all, too focused on the end product, instead of on the process? Am I writing for fame or the for joy of writing? Am I writing for money or for happiness. If I’m too focused of what I imagine will be the byproducts, I should stop and reconsider.

Interestingly this is what tarot wisdom is telling about the King of Coins from the Alchemical Tarot Study Group:

“The message here is to honor the libido, the animal self, the instincts. Act in strength and possess the courage to pursue what you want. However, keep in mind that well-being is best achieved when this is done without attachment to the end result”

Sometimes it is stunning how precisely the tarot oracle is. This is exactly about honoring the process, without – well – focusing on what it will be in  the end!

Also, the Materialist could be the dull and boresome inner Critic telling me that the very idea of the writing is of no value and that I should grow up and be realistic and do things that really matters. And that I can’t write after all. We all encounter the Critic and he can be a real showstopper, a real pain in the ass kind of character. We should never listen to him!

Instead I’ll be the Lion. I’ll remember why I write and how much I love it. And then Just do it!

Images from The Alchemical Tarot, copyright Robert M. Place, are used with kind permission. Visit the Alchemical Tarot website.

Robert M. Place who is the brilliant artist behind the Alchemical Tarot, has just launched a new book, The Fool’s Journey. That inspired me to ask this question: Where am I, beeing the Fool, now on my creative and spiritual journey?

Again I’m using the Little Cross – telling about the situation and the challenge.

I draw Temperance for the Situation and Ace of Coins for the Challenge.

Temperance is one of the four cardinal virtues. Alchemically speaking, Temperance is about carefully balancing and mixing elements, and about delicately distilling fluids to get the right mixture of things. So. I guess Temperance has a lot to do with patience, with I’ am afraid is NOT one of my strongest traits. But this is where I am right now, in a situation that require me to be patient, calm and balanced.

And along comes a rabbit. I’m reminded about the white rabbit in the movie Alice In Wonderland, which I recently watched, the story crazily interpretated by genius Tim Burton. If that is the kind of rabbit that will challenge me, coolness is indeed called for.  But I guess this rabbit is telling me that if I keep my calm and do the right and virtous mixing of stuff, everything will come my way. This is a rabbit of abundance and fertility and growth.

There seems to be a subtle link between the Ace of Coins and Temperance that has to with the irises on the Ace of coins. Here I am quoting Leisa in the Alchemical Tarot Study Group:

“The iris flower refers to the lesser known Greek Goddess Iris. Her name means rainbow. She is usually shown winged and bearing a herald’s staff. Iris is the female counterpart of Mercury, the messenger of the gods. We find iris on the Trump XIV Temperance [on the waite-smith card”.

The rainbow as a symbol is about cherising the gifts of God, and that is also what the Rabbit is reminding me to do. Be content with what is given to you, but don’t forget about spirituality:

“You are on the right path to acquisitions, wealth, and success in the material world. Don’t forget, however, that every manifestation in the material world emanates from the spirit. Enjoy the material but don’t neglect the spiritual”.

Images from The Alchemical Tarot, copyright Robert M. Place, are used with kind permission. Visit the Alchemical Tarot website.

“I would rather have people learn how to hear the gods for themselves than trust the word of someone who says they can consult the gods for us.”‘

Says Paul Nagy to Enrique Enriquez in a interview on his tarotblog, tarology.

To divine means to communicate with the gods. Somehow this is something we have forgotten in our western culture. I think we should all be able to divine, be it via dreams or via I Ching or Tarot, or yet another divining tool.

So all though I do NOT read the cards for others my aim is to encourage you, my reader, to use the tarot for listening to the gods – to hear Your truth.

I take this as an opportunity to revive this blog. Because I hope to use this as a medium for writing about my love for the tarot as exactly that; a way for us to listen to the gods.