The Hermit reversed/Knight of Cups. The Hermit, which corresponds with Earth (cold/binds and dry/shapes, and material, practical and stable energy that is slow to change), Virgo (“I serve,” practical, analytical, work and service oriented, orderly), Yod (open hand, touch), and the Path between Tiphareth (the hub of the creation process where energies harmonize and focus to illuminate and clarify) and Chesed (the place where forms and structure are stabilized and nurtured), is about searching within for a deeper meaning.  The upright card often tells of the need of solitude, sometimes to the point of loneliness, in order to be able to perceive the messages offered and lessons to be learned. The Knight of Cups (cusp of Aquarius, “I know,” friendships, the group, cause-oriented, and Pisces, “I believe,” feelings, duality, suffering, soul growth) feels things strongly, and is a dreamer.  He is telling me that imagination and emotions and connections to others will be at least on my mind a lot today, if not a part of my experiences of the day. I do need to remember that while strong emotions may appear to have a simple meaning, often there is a need to examine the subtle undercurrents as well as the approaching wave.  Taken together, these cards are kind of offering a warning: don’t go into yourself too deeply or dive into your emotions with too much abandon, because you might not see reality.

My Thoth card is the Queen of Cups reversed.  Hmm . . . one of my favorite Court Cards, but reversed. The Queen of Cups (cusp of Gemini, “I think,” curious, sociable, dual, and Cancer, “I feel,” sensitive, tenacious, nurturing, moody) is the energies of The High Priestess manifested into the Minor Arcana.  Crowley sees this Queen as being dreamy and tranquil, able to receive and project, but since the card is reversed, these might not be desirable focuses for today.  Throwing both this Queen of Cups reversed and the Knight of Cups above kind of hints at the presence of some kind of emotional illusion.

My Legacy card is the Three of Coins reversed, flavored by the Six of Cups. The Three of Coins (Mars, action, spontaneity, aggression, drive, in Capricorn, “I build,” ambition, cunning, competence) in an upright position tells of competence, planning and teamwork.  My card is reversed, and could be telling me not that I should not be working hard, but rather that I should depend on myself rather than on the support of others. The Six of Cups (Sun, the inner core of a person or situation in Scorpio, “I desire,” intense, compulsive, deep, obsessive) is a card of emotional balance, simple joys fun and blessings.  This card is flavoring my reversed Three of Coins, and telling me that whatever I choose to focus on today, it should at least touch the physical world, and I don’t need to feel bad if in completing my tasks of the day, I choose to shut out everyone else.  Taken with the rest of my Cups cards today, I am feeling a bit relieved.  Whatever emotional illusion might be brewing, it should not cause harm.

My 6-digit date number is 7, the number that tells of the pause (and possibly some kind of choice) that comes as growth begins to transform into degeneration.

My horoscopes: “You probably enjoy exploring the innermost recesses of your own human nature, Sagittarius. Yet today you may need to be a bit more rational. In your personal life, you may feel as if you've been beaten at your own game and this has weakened you. Why not take advantage of this to bring your partner with you on one of your voyages inside yourself?”

And: “Communication with others by electronic media, whether it's phone, e-mail, or fax, could well be difficult today. Everything that can go wrong probably will - machines breaking down, phone lines out, messages not delivered, the Internet crashing. Driving a car could land you in impossible traffic. If you really need to speak to someone, the best thing to do may be just to take a walk and go see them in person. Enjoy the exercise!”

My Shadowscapes Insight is regarding the Queen of Pentacles.  Aaahhh, another of my favorite Court Cards.  She is the essence of The Empress manifested in the Minor Arcana, and both her heart and her spirit glow with a warm and loving light.  Indeed, this Queen can absorb the energies around her of the physical world, and transform them into healing and nurturing and support, available to all.  If I can impose this Queen’s intention into my day, I should be fine.

After a discussion with a dear friend yesterday, I feel the need to crystallize some of my own beliefs.  Beliefs about life, about living, about the experiences, both good and bad, that come to us as we live our lives, and about the purpose of it all.  Or should I say, Purpose. 

Some of this clarity has come to me through my time exploring The Emerald Tablet.  In fact, I am preparing a manuscript describing my experiences during that study, to submit for publication.  But that is another story.  Coming to an understanding of The Emerald Tablet has offered me a much deeper insight into the workings of Deity, or I should say, a deeper insight into how I perceive the workings of Deity, and thus, of life and living.

I add that final “and thus” because I believe that the life force within us all, within every living entity, and the force that propels the workings of Nature around us, is the same “essence” as that which is Deity, which in turn connects us and our lives to Deity.  I believer that the unique “Construct” or mental picture that each of us visualizes as Deity, or as the Higher Self of our psyche if we don’t believe in God, is composed of the purest part of this essence that animates everything in the Universe.  This purest essence is composed of all that is feminine (or passive and receptive), all that is masculine (or active and projective) and a Catalyst which brings motion and the effects of combinations into the mix.  These three “ingredients” are interlaced so completely and tightly that they are not separated into individual parts but rather are a irrevocably conjoined combination of the three ingredients.  This essence has no need for a personal agenda or code of ethics or “power over” because it is eternal, and thus does not depend on the domination or infusion of any other source in order to continue. 

A part of the makeup of this essence is its need to experience life and living.  Indeed that could very well be its only requirement for continuation.  One of the places or situations that allows this essence to experience life and living is on the physical planes, another is on the astral planes.  Thus, this essence inserts itself or portions of itself into “vehicles” within these planes, in order to experience life.  The insertion involves lacing the purest essence of life with “lower” impurities; this process of adding impurities is necessary for the essence to truly experience life within these other realms.  Of course, the realm we know most about is our own, the physical realm, because we experience this realm within physical vehicles. These physical vehicles are not eternal; indeed, a necessary part of the insertion process is experiencing the stages of life and death.  Another necessary part of the insertion process is experiencing extremes; pleasure and pain, peace and chaos, serenity and discord. 

I like to believe that each of us has a purpose to this life we are living, a particular experience to face or lesson to be learned or task to be completed.  Perhaps we even volunteer to face this particular purpose before we are put into this life’s vehicle.  But the need to face this purpose is not written in stone; instead, we will find that life’s joys and challenges will offer us opportunities to choose to manifest this purpose, or to choose to turn away from it.  There is no right or wrong here, for each possible version of a particular life has value.  If we choose to accept the purpose and are successful in manifesting the experience or learning the lesson or completing the task, our vehicle will begin its process of ending its existence, and once the vehicle has ended, the life essence will be offered a new experience.  If our choices succeed in completely derailing the potential for successfully connecting to our purpose, the vehicle will likewise begin its process of ending, but the life essence will need to return to another version of the original purpose in order to attempt to connect to it once again.  This ending of the physical vehicle can be long and gradual, or sudden and without warning. 

The purpose offered or volunteered for may be a catalyst to our own evolution, or may not be directly regarding our own evolution, but rather acting as a catalyst or support to another’s process of manifesting his/her/its purpose.  Our interactions with other vehicles, whether of greater or lesser or equal awareness to our own, can slow down our own process or the processes of others, or these interactions can speed up our processes and those of others.  Either way, the experience is valid and has value, so there is no right or wrong choice to be made or action to be taken.

Is this how things really are in our Universe?  Is this how the process works?  I have no idea.  And I probably will not ever, during my existence within this physical vehicle, know for sure if I am correct or way off base.  But it feels right to me, at least it does at this stage of my own evolution.

Okay, then.

$>