I threw two cards yesterday, right before leaving for my PBT Yule Ritual, and was excited by the cards I threw.
The True Black High Priestess is seated on a crescent moon and is wearing a hooded cape almost the same color as the shadowy background. Around her neck is a large key (representing the potential to be unlocked by the knowledge she guards); floating above her right hand is a pomegranate (representing the fertility of feminine power) and from her left hand dangles a dowsing pendulum (with which she gains less apparent wisdom). The keywords for this card are mystery, occult knowledge, subconscious, and intuition.
We've seen the VIII of Swords before. The image on this card shows eight Swords, all with points facing downward. One large Sword is in the center of the other seven, and the blade of this Sword glows almost up to the hilt, a brilliant yellow at the tip and gradually getting more orange moving up the blade. One of the Swords in the background is also glowing a softer orange. The seven surrounding Swords seem to be on guard, but several blades (including the softly glowing blade) are shattered. The keywords for this card are test, crucible, stress, and persecution.
The High Priestess is an important card to me of late (for over the past year), and I have been striving mightily to understand her, with only partial success. What interests me about the True Black High Priestess is that behind her is a holographic topographic map of the Mariana Trench, a wonderful metaphor for the energies and effects of this card. At a depth of 7 miles, the Mariana Trench is one of the most hidden and difficult locations to access and study. Despite the darkness and the dangers, there is much to be learned there, as it is filled with unexplored species and unknown information about the workings of our planet. The VIII of Swords tells me that there is no courage without fear and no gain without sacrifice. Now is the time to be brave, to use all of my knowledge and wisdom to learn as much as I can from the current situation even if it is enshrouded in darkness, and either emerge victorious or fail (and learn from that failure). The test may very well be to trust myself and my abilities, without judgment.
Within my Yule Ritual I was encouraged to explore information once again, this time to explore Elemental Dignities and their relationships with Tarot cards. A "dignity" in the world of Tarot is defined as anything that could modify the meaning of a card. There are several dignities that can affect the meaning of a particular card: the familiar upright and reversed dignities, positional dignities (for example, throwing The Lovers in a business-related speed position could have a negative influence on the potential outcome of a business-focused reading), numerological dignities (for example, having more than one card of a particular number showing up in a spread could indicate the correspondences of that number are also in play within the spread), or even image symbolism dignities (throwing multiple cards with images that are the same or related could support the importance of those cards).
We can use the elements to classify groups of cards as being positive or negative, or as having interactions that are strong or weak. Friendly interactions would bring a more positive interpretation, and the energies of the cards would be more powerful and dominant in a reading. Neutral interactions would focus more on basic interpretations and would have a more normal and balanced strength of effects and manifestations. Unfriendly interactions would offer more negative interpretations, with card energies that are weaker and have less influence.
Combine these concepts with the elements, and we get:
Fire and air are friendly; they are active and support each other. Water and Earth are friendly; they are passive but support each other. Fire and Earth are neutral; they can cancel each other out but each still has individual power. Air and Water are also neutral, with the same ability to cancel each other out yet each retaining individual power. Fire and Water are unfriendly, and weaken each other. Air and Earth are also unfriendly, and likewise weaken each other.
Good start!!
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