Thursday, August 25, 2011

Tarot card from the world: Piece of Sky on the Ground


A piece of sky has fallen to earth. The piece in question is a panel from an outdoor stage setup at the lake house in my local park, that was being dismantled when I walked the dog this morning.
I felt I had been dealt a living Tarot card from the world.

My mind went to the traditional Iroquois teaching that we must "remember the sky" in order not to fall into the Dark Times in our lives or our world. Tohsa sasa nikonh'ren, as they say in Mohawk. "Do not let your mind fall." Meaning: don't let your mind fall from the knowledge of Earth-in-the-Sky, the world-beyond-the-world that holds the origin and meaning of the human adventure here below, on the Turtle's back. I write about all of this in Dreamways of the Iroquois.

Reflecting on these things, I walked home under light rain, and found another Tarot card from the world. On the sidewalk on my own block, two cages were being offered for sale. The handwritten notice began: "AIRLINE APPROVED. $25." You could pick a rigid or a collapsible cage. I know, I know, from one point of view they are just crates for animal transportation that someone no longer wants, maybe because they not longer have pets, or are not planning to move again. But a larger symbolism stirred me. Forget the sky, forget the bigger story, fall to earth and forget what you came here, and sooner or later you'll find yourself in a cage, perhaps one conveniently prefabricated and supplied at a good price by others.

In a big dream reported in Active Dreaming, the Lion told me: "Humans are the only animals that choose to live in cages."

Interesting, what the world gives us to play with on any day, if we are open to the dreamlike play of symbols in everyday life. Baudelaire was right: we are walking in a forest of living symbols that are looking at us.

10 comments:

  1. The sky is falling, the sky is falling!

    No wait, it's already fallen ...

    A very crative day for you.

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  3. Nina - Thanks for again playing a most lively encyclopedia of world literature. Not many of us read Selma Lagerlöf in English; as a matter of fact Swedish literature was largely unknown in the anglophone world (apart from Astrid Lindgren and Ingmar Bergman, even Strindberg was mostly forgotten) before the astonishing popular posthumous success of Stieg Larsson's crime trilogy and (to a lesser extent) the policiers of Henning Mankel, all of which I read en route to teach in Stockholm not so long ago. I don't think I'll pause for Lagerlöf's "Jerusalem" now though; too many other books on my several reading tables.

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  5. Nina - Ah, an objet trouvé. That makes the connection (if it's my find) much more personal and interesting. On a bench in the same park where I found a "piece of sky on the ground", I recently found a Russian-language TV Guide, with a cover devoted to a new performance of Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffman", with a Russian cast, in New York City. I am still mulling what is most calling for attention: the Russian connection, the opera, or ETA Hoffman, who wrote an almost unreadable novel on one of my favorite themes, the doppelganger.

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  7. Hello Robert,

    After reading this I wanted to share with you this creation story I just wrote to honor a series of dreams that started with a color fragment of blue aqua green. I had a wonderful re-entry as I dialogued with this color and playing the first three things added a nice wink of meaning. Last night I had an empowering dream where I finally claimed my moccasins.

    Returning to the Fields of Play and Creation

    In the most ancient of days the great god in the sky came to ask the great goddess in the sky if they might play at designing a most powerful instrument for all times. The goddess smiled because she enjoyed playing with this sky god. He was always working at some design and she simply loved play. It was grand and all sorts of emotions grew and all sorts of designs came into being. As they came into a most beautiful rhythm, as this design began it's ascent into form, night and day came into the song of time. During a cycle, in a field of flowers and green, with blue skies and deep dark nights, the god created jewels that lit the sky and the goddess new she could never leave this one. As they moved in fields together gentle and rough, passion arose and flesh was formed. They slept together and dreamed together into the next cycle of day. What shall we call this most powerful instrument for all times dear father, asked the mother. We shall call it Human, dear mother.
    Time past and a sky child came to the fields. How may I know this great power for myself she asked? Well it is simple said the mother, you ask for it. And a first child was born. The mother finds a sphere to place among her beautiful jeweled filled sky and the father adds his own, joined in the rhythm of days and nights. And many more sky children ask and are born to become the First People. Many cycles go by and children are born into the cycle of day and night. They start to forget the fields of all time and leave the river of dreaming. They no longer know that they are a most powerful design in all time. They begin to wrap themselves in an illusion of only day and night understanding. The mother grows tears in sadness, so few come to the fields of all at once, to share in play. The father tries to shake the children awake, but too much quaking and too many bolts will destroy the spheres. Too much wind crying will flood them. The People start to sense and dream again, but this is not enough. They don't remember the power of their form, they forgot it's expressions of beauty. The mother and father call their sky children again. Who will chose this instrument and go and teach the People awake? As it has always been, the ones who chose for themselves become the teachers. And the mother plays again with the father adding his games, in the place that is all at once. The human journey is returned to the memory of itself and the spheres return to a cycle of restoration.

    Gratitude to you and your teachings Robert.

    Patty

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  8. It's a pity that we are such forgetful beings and we lose the connection with the sky in us so easily .......
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  9. This is such a fabulous article you have posted that I was looking for Thanks for sharing the valuable and informative post about piece of sky on the ground tarot card. Keep up the good work.

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  10. I am still learning more and more about psychic perception. I like your articles and the genuine insight they provide. It is hard to find good writers on the topic of clairvoyance.

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