The future's so bright...

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades - the Timbuk3 hit for 1986 originating from  Barbara MacDonald saying to her husband singer/songwriter Pat MacDonald, "The future is looking so bright, we'll have to wear sunglasses!" As we're entering the first quarter moon after the Lunar New Year (which appears approximately seven days after the new moon), we're at yet another threshold. "But Alicia," you ask, "what in the hell does the halfway point between the new and full moon phases have to do with sunglasses, and even more importantly, the future?!" Oh I am so glad you asked, dear reader!

Let's begin with the High Priestess in Tarot - I'd like to point out something for you to ponder. Intuition is genderless - both the feminine and masculine possess it - it simply manifests differently for, well, the user, that's you and me. If you're on a Major Arcana journey like me and if you're reading this (Pray for me - hello The Weeknd with Kendrick Lamar!) you'll notice patterns, gifts, and insights. It's why it's so important to journal (grimoire if you like) as much as you can - those insights will be helpful as you're on your journey. Now back to the High Priestess.

Have you encountered the Seer within you? How has that initiation been? Do you see the same minor arcana cards popping up for you over and over again? Good - be limitless in your exploration of those cards. The card that I most often encounter is what many dread, the 8 of swords. It's a daunting card to be sure - we see in the Rider-Waite deck a woman blindfolded, bound, and wind-tossed surrounded by a circle of 8 swords. I've had readers be quite flippant when they pull this for me "Telling yourself stories again, deary?!" like the witch from Snow White. Well, I re-wrote that fairy tale where Snow White shanks that old bitch with a magic hunting knife after she tricks her into eating her poison apple (a tale for another time I smirk - didn't I say I was a daughter of Odin? My bad..).

Now, (I just love the Italian word for that, Allora) back to the minors as initiation cards informing you of your path - that's where we were, dear reader. For me taking one of the tarot cards of my birth (The Magician) and the High Priestess from previous incarnations (don't even start with me), the natural progression is the Empress (or the Emperor or even the Hierophant if you're so inclined). "But where are the sunglasses and the future?!" I'm getting there, I'm getting there, but first, let's take a wee trip to Lord of the Rings, shall we?

When Galadriel asks Frodo if he will look into the mirror - which is a water-scrying bowl let's not kid ourselves here - he's shown the future and what will happen if he fails in his quest, which was appointed to HIM, and HIM alone. Isn't that every single solitary one of us practitioners on our path? ARE WE BRAVE ENOUGH TO LOOK INWARD AND OUTWARD FOR THE TRUTH? Well, are you? Hell, I took the challenge of the 8 of swords as an initiation strategy, what did you challenge yourself with?

Now to the 8 of swords - I've wrestled with this card for a solid two years now - and I'm still finding unique perspectives which is what this card is all about. The initiate, bound and blindfolded, and totally alone and NOT dressed for the elements. Who put this person here, and who do the 8 swords surrounding the initiate belong to anyways? Are the possessors of the swords like the Fellowship of the Ring - yes there were 9 initially, but Boromir sacrifices himself - and what about that - SACRIFICE.

Being unprepared for the elements in isolation is suffering, and not unlike when Odin speared himself to Yggdrasil. The blindfold is also not unlike the sacrifice of Odin's right eye, but even more importantly, it blocks out the light reflected from the sun and moon onto the swords at the initiate. They've gotta wear shades in this posture, don't they? Perhaps they've chosen a time of an eclipse, which being blindfolded would be most wise - allowing the initiate to feel the absence of the sun in a unique way and the explosion of its return as the moon cleared the trajectory.

And that's the point of the 8 of swords, isn't it? You must FEEL your way. Sure, you can hear and you can smell, but those can be tricks of the imagination. The swords have whispered to the initiate of self-doubt, unworthiness, regret, sadness, etc. The initiate must meet their own discernment guided by what they feel, and I am not talking about emotions here - I am speaking of reactions of the physical vessel itself - it has incredible wisdom. Your vessel, when attuned, will discern truth from falsehood even as you utter it. This is the sacred space of the 8 of swords, to meet your own inner discernment under duress similar to Odin speared to Yggdrasil - suffering for the quest of truth but also to understand illusion.

The 8 of Swords is the glamor magick card in tarot - you must master it at some point in your journey - something I know you didn't want to read, but I am hopeful that this will lighten your load just a little. The choice to drown in delusion is yours; however, if you so choose, it is a place of empowerment.

Recall how each of the Fellowship of the Ring dedicated their skill to Frodo in his quest to go to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring. I challenge you to think of those 8 swords proudly imbedded in the earth surrounding the initiate isn't some random ring - it's your team - your ancestors, your spirit guides, whatever you understand to be your spirit support team - your "Knights of the Round Table."

Embrace them, they might be a little, shall we say trickstery, but so? Aren't you too? Don't you like a good joke? Indeed you do, and that my friends, is trickster magick. When I thought about this piece, I started singing the nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice. It made me laugh - so what if I am blind with my blindfold? I'm here by grace, and that grace is what sets me free. I'm free to CHOOSE and the good news is, so are you. Why be limited when you can be limitless I ask you?

I hope that you consider what I've written here not just as something to ponder but as a challenge for you to view the initiation path you're on from another perspective. Mirrors (swords and water!) are simply reflections for us to discern truth. Will the truth, your future, be so bright you gotta wear shades?

I leave you with Sylvia Plath -

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful‚
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

Thanks for reading!