By Sarah Taylor
“You will be able to recognize facts and call by name things which other people would prefer to sweep under the carpet. This entails a great responsibility on your part. Be sure never to express your insights heartlessly. But when you are fully in contact with Love, use your sword without sparing yourself or others.”
Gerd Ziegler, Tarot: Mirror of the Soul
Alchemy. The alchemy of thought, of clarity directed energetically — in other words, of intent. This is such a dynamic reading that I’m finding it hard to step away from the vitality enough to encapsulate it in words in a way that does it justice. Once again, it is a reading to intuit and to interact with visually — it is by immersing yourself in it that you will derive the most accurate meaning it holds for you. But I will try and equip you as best I can for that moment of immersion.
First, let’s look at the word ‘alchemy’, embodied in Art (also known as Temperance), the fourteenth card in the major arcana. This word has come up several times over the past week in conversations I’ve had with others. But what does it mean? Historically, alchemy is the process of turning base metals and elements into gold. The more I read up on this process, the more I have understood that this is a literal pursuit as well as a metaphorical one, even if the process itself is shrouded in mystery. However, I am going to focus on the metaphorical meaning of alchemy because it is the one with which I am more familiar and personally involved.
If traditional alchemy is the transmutation of base matter into gold, then psychological alchemy is the transmutation of base experiences into something altogether precious. “Base” can mean formative, such as the experiences of childhood. It can also mean raw, vulgar, corrupted: anything that we find hard to digest in ourselves, which we consign to the shadows — some of which are also experiences formed in childhood. In psychological alchemy, our personalities and experiences are the base matter, our psyches are the labs, and our devotion to self-transmutation is our task.
Alchemy offers us a chance to see life differently. To an alchemist, base matter is the only route to gold. Likewise, to a modern alchemist, we are our own raw materials, the unmitigated crap – the breath-taking beauty – thrown our way essential ingredients, the pressure cooker of life a cauldron in which we can re-create who we are.
The result: the gold of individuation.
We become golden when we shine in the way we are meant to shine, and we do that through a process of purification, chemical reaction, and buffing ourselves with experiences and people that rub against us and offer us a means of smoothing and polishing our rough and burnished edges.
One of the things that we are equipped with through this process is the gold of insight: the Ace of Swords. Swords represent the intellect, and the Ace is intellect in the service of the divine. We further our own evolution, and the evolution of others, when we hone the sword of insight and learn to wield it in such a way that it becomes a precision instrument.
When we can do this — when we can stop using our intellect, our beliefs, and our words as weapons to maim and wound — we meet with Dominion: the Two of Wands. We claim our energy and understand our creative powers to the point where we are able to harness them and use them. And we have wisdom (the Ace) and experience (Art) on our side.
Several months ago, I referred to Wands energy as sometimes being like a kid with a box of matches. Not here. Dominion has us all grown up, knowing the right conditions in which we can strike a match, knowing how to hold it once it is lit — more importantly, having something worth igniting and which will burn purposefully and constructively.
This reading stands out among the more recent ones because there are no Cups. I would say this is significant in that we have been equipped in previous readings with the awareness of our own emotional natures, which are primarily receptive, and we are moving into territory where we prove ourselves in the fires of will. We have been shown what we can be; now it is time to take that knowledge and apply it. Hold that blade of keen vision in front of you. It’s time to exercise wisdom in the service of love. Spare no-one the truth. Not even yourself.
If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article explains how to use the spread.
eco11 – That the reading has come alive (hah! just wrote “alove” before correcting) for you is absolutely plain to see in your words, and really it exemplifies what tarot does when it connects with our cores.
Hurrah! 😀
P.S.
Okay, now this is very very cool I think. Synchronicity.
Speaking of Mermaids… I made some Mermaid prints to go along with my Mermaid novel -both that I created in 2008…
…and, in the middle of my Midyear Reports, I got a sale of one of my small Mermaids!
(It’s from a fairly consistent, but small site -not my own- where I have sales generating from, but due to no marketing $$ on my part, it is one of the only places these sales come from, so far, in a trickle through way. And I was thinking -again- if I could reach more people, this site shows what I can do when I only am exposed to a very small population.) Yea!
But then, after I finished the above comment, I saw that that sale was cancelled and that instead of the small print, the buyer wanted the larger one. Double Yea!
I feel the universe is speaking to me!! (“Who me? You talking to me? Oh God, this is Fun!)
(Had to share!)
It’s been a long time since I was last here.
I just finished listening to the MidYear (connecting your life’s calling with your finances) Reports that especially apply to me: my sun, rising, and moon. I am digesting all of this with a most whooshing of the connecting of dots in myself, an energetic response that is so authentic and feels so accurate as to be reviving.
And, then, I turned here. Today. Thursday. The Sunday Tarot reading was always a favorite stop.
But: WOW!
I saw this immediately in the Light of my life calling connect to finances reports. It was like it put it into imagery.
I had just finished with my moon, talking about its 10th house in Sagittarius and the ARROW and -bingo!- the first card is the most dynamic sword in the highest calling 10th house of my moon: BOLDLY GO where only you can go being yourself!
Then the next card: Dominion. But what I *see* immediately is the Neptune, the mermaids, the sea, the squid, again the arrows, but these two in balance and harmony pointing down, pushing deeper, deep.
And the third card: Art. Which. Is. My. Work. Art with purpose, integrity, spirituality, all mixing.
I LOVE the words “base matter” that you used in your awesome reading, Sarah. Time for turning what matters into gold.
But also, again, at the bottom, the arrow repeats. At least I see it as an arrow. And within the card, all of the elements: including a cup (inclusive), the wheat, the fire, the caldron, and there is Leo and the red eagle drinking, taking it in as the woman, with her light and her shadow equally distributed -whole- stirring it all, the ingredients.
Wonderful, wonderful draw of cards!
1 – 2 – 14
Thank you.
Sarah:
I so love your words “Alchemy. The alchemy of thought, of clarity directed energetically–in other words, of intent.” So instrumental in this journey we call life.
Along with xtica, luckydriver, and huffy, the synchronicity of your words was perfectly timed.
“Hi” also to Jude…
And Rob, the poem you shared was lovely. Thank you all.
You’re welcome, xtica. I’ve been saying for quite a while now that I’d love to write a book called “The Alchemy of Shit”. Maybe our crappy experiences could do with a bit of re-framing. 🙂
lovely reading sarah, as always. i’ve got goose bumps about the whole alchemy thing: yesterday at 11:45 pst i was driving back from the bayside with my two dogs and i remembered the phrase ‘dross into gold’ and was keeping the image of an alchemist’s shop in my mind. the strange thing-since i sign online once a day-when i opened the computer this morning- voila! here was your reading.
what a synchronous delight! many thanks to you
You’re welcome, Rob and Huffy.
And I echo Huffy’s thanks about the poem, Rob. It is much appreciated.
Yes, ditto! Thank you for this stunning reading, dear Sarah. A brilliant description of the alchemical process, coming at a time when I really needed it. You are a true wordsmith. And for the first time, the Thoth cards really resonated with me.
Thank you for the gorgeous poem, Rob.
As always Sarah, a powerfully synchronistic reading for me as well. Today, reading through a sheaf of collected poems by others, I came across this. It speaks directly to that moment, long-yearned-for in my journey, “…when we can stop using our intellect, our beliefs, and our words as weapons to maim and wound — we meet with Dominion.”
Dominion
Sometimes I take the leather hood off—I
refuse to wear it. As if I were king. Or a man
who’s free. Ravens, red-tailed hawks, the usual
flocks of drifting-most-of-the-time strangers
settle the way even things that drift
have to, and
I don’t care. All over again, I know things that
nobody knows, or wants to—things that, though
prettier, maybe, against the snow
of memory, can
still hurt, all the same. Any blame falling where
it falls—that random. That moment each day
when the light traveling across what’s always been
mine to at any point take back, or give elsewhere,
becomes just the light again, turning back to dark,
when the branches
stir as they’ve stirred forever,
more tenderly over some of us than others. Sing,
or don’t sing. Help me take this leather hood off—
I refuse to wear it. I’m the king. I’m free.
~ Carl Phillips
Thank you, lucky and Jude, for your comments!
Lucky – I’ve had very similar feelings when seeing the Thoth – especially when I first started working with it a couple of years ago. From a teaching perspective, there’s a point where it comes time to trust that intuition has more in store for you than that which you can ‘read’ from pictures. The Rider-Waite Smith is a powerful deck, and it is also a lovely one for beginners because its imagery is so literal. If, as a beginner, you are working with intuition from a position of doubt rather than certainty, the RWS can really help you to negotiate that doubt in leaps and bounds.
The Thoth asks you to take an intuitive leap. It is not a ‘better’ deck in objective terms, but, like riding a bicycle, it could be seen as taking the stabilisers off and learning to surrender to your innate sense of balance. The same goes for any of the more abstract decks, the Tarot de Marseille minor arcana being a good example, because it is more like a deck of playing cards than a pictorial deck like the RWS.
So if you’re feeling a little ‘lost’ in the Thoth, invoke The Fool and take a step into the unknown. Although it sounds like you already have. 🙂
Lovely, encouraging throw and interpretation, Sarah — thanks, as always, for ‘just the right thing’ to help make sense of the moment. Blessed be …
Thanks, Sarah – this is another powerfully synchronistic reading for me….I have to admit that these Thoth cards really threw me off when you switched over to them, but probably in a good way. They are visually bordering much more on abstraction than the more representational Rider-Waite deck, and my eye initially perceives them as being quite disorienting . I have no idea which card is which, and there are times I just don’t know until I read the text at the bottom of the card! I am much more engrossed by the tones and structure of the cards; they seem to engage much more of my right brain.