Interesting pair. My Inner Focus card is the 8 of Pentacles. The image on this card shows a naked man and a naked woman on top of the covers of a bed. He is on his back and propped up on pillows, and she has her back to him. We don't see much of his face, but she appears to be in the throes of ecstasy. Her knees are spread wide, and we can see that his right arm is under her body and reaching around to her pubis; it appears that one or more of his fingers are in her vagina. It also appears that he is penetrating her anally. The background is mostly in shadow, but the couple are bathed in sunlight and the light is shining through small windows that are creating shadows across both of their bodies, appearing like bars or bindings. Also in this sunlight is a pike, which is leaning against the wall behind the bed. The key phrase for this card is: use manual skills to arouse pleasurable sensations.
My Outer Focus card also shows a naked man and a naked woman on a bed, this one more rumpled. The man is laying on his back, with one arm up over his head. We can't see his face but he appears to be relaxed to the point of near unconsciousness. The woman is straddling him, and we see her from the back only. She does not appear to be moving, so we can assume that they have both completed the sex act. Again we see what appears to be sunlight shining through a window. The woman's back is lit by the sun, but her shoulders are in the shade. We can see the shadow of the open bed curtains against the wall behind the bed. The key phrases for this card are: well-being, having more than enough, and the possibility of pregnancy.
This pairing has a very personal message for me. You see, in my physical world, I am very uncomfortable with change. Home construction project? Love the end result but anticipating the temporary upheaval? Not so much. Even driving by myself to a new place causes me to over-prepare, printing out maps and looking at online street views of my destination. That 8 of Pentacles card kind of validates my preparations while at the same time encouraging me to not stress over what could go wrong. Some things require skill and practice in order to manifest with pleasure to all, and making the effort to know what works and what doesn't is a worthy endeavor. Being open to new experiences without doing the homework can also be scary, but if we partner with someone else who has done the preparatory work and who has earned our trust, we can succeed. We should not allow our fear to imprison us, whether we are the person trying something new and a bit frightening, or we are the guide who is sharing a new and potentially scary situation with another with the goal of sharing pleasure, not fear.
The 9's of the Tarot Minor Arcana represent the complete-ness of the manifestation of the suit (as compared to the 10's and complete-tion of that manifestation). The completion of the manifestation of the suit of Chalices is imaged here: a man replete with pleasure, and a woman who successfully piloted the completion of the act. The act was good, and both parties feel that the manifestations to come will be even better. Those manifestations could even be fertile enough to create new opportunities for collaboration. Reaching this stage requires an emotional connection of some kind, even if that emotional connection is just affection and trust. These two, by embracing their inner opposites (submission by the man and control by the woman), have created a moment of balance, of Perfect Love and Trust, that very well may offer future pleasures. Whew, it worked!
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