🚪 "Vision through Crisis" - deadlocked in the "Temple of the Secrets"
Originally I planed to reveal the mysteries of the "Temple of the Secrets" on Fridays... but not everything in life turns out as planed.
In the journey of the fool, in which the 22 major arcana of the Tarot are compared to the "chapters" of a human life, this becomes particularly clear in the card commonly known as "the hanged man". I always found the card really weird and also a little scary. Although it does not represent immediate danger or a catastrophe as some further down the road...
Nevertheless, I gave it a different name, which would better represent its meaning in my way of looking at the deck as a cycle of life: "XII - Die Prüfung". I have tried really hard to find an accurate translation into English, but it doesn't seem so easy after all and I welcome your suggestions. It means a sort of test, but also evaluation with a touch of ordeal...
In the sequence of the 22 trump cards, we are just passed the middle. A point in life, that is often associated with midlife crisis. After we just made peace with ourselves in "the Force" we are now faced with yet another challenge.
Whereas in the last card, the colors represented intensity and passion, the grayish blues and pale skin tone point towards melancholy and stagnation.
For the first time in our journey through life, we are confronted with a situation, we cannot actively resolve. We become aware of our own finiteness and take a deep long look at our life so far. We review the things we have done and ask ourselves, whether we have always set the right course. With all the evaluation and thinking, it comes to a kind of standstill.
Life, represented by the ankh in the center is turned upside down and a bit abraded around the edges. It seems like we are stuck and helpless in this situation.
Now it's time to rethink. By expanding our horizon and with this change of our thought patterns, we can turn around and continue the journey. Sometimes it is also necessary to make a sacrifice. Sometimes, we hold on to something that we believe is absolutely necessary for our life. In reality, it only keeps us trapped in this crisis and if we manage to let go, the weight shifts, you can turn around and go on...
I'm sure @erh.germany and @abigail-dantes would be able to give much more in depth information on the psychological aspects of this card. They both wrote some really fascinating posts about psychology and if you find the subject interesting, you should definitely take a look at their blogs!
To find out your Personal TAROT Card, just add day, month and year of your date of Birth:
dd + mm + jjjj = xxxx.
Now add the four digits of the resulting number:
x + x + x + x = nn
If the resulting number is greater than 22 please add n + n again.
Any result equal to or smaller than 22 is your personal number with 22 representing 0
visit @tarotbyfergus
The Temple of the Secrets total size of artwork is 15ft by 45ft, unfinished
It was part of the museum I ran for twenty years.
If you'd like to take a look at previous cards, you can use the following links:
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My tarot cards were done in my special technique as introduced in What is Hinterglas?
Thank you so much for the kind words 😊
I am not so sure if I could come up with a deeper meaning ! I think you did a great job and was absolutely fascinated by your conclusion; particularly when you talked about changing thought patterns in order to free ourselves and expand our horizons!
Bravo ❤️
Ps: I also love Erika’s writings!
All the best to you :)
Finally a peaceful Sunday morning with a nice cup of coffee from downstairs and no troubleshooting in sight. What I am really looking forward to is to read through your's and a few other posts with all the attention they deserve.
Could only scan "Mindfulness - Acceptance, Awareness & Being Present" quickly, just to satisfy my curiosity. But without the peace and quiet to really enjoy the way and of course what you write. Let alone leave a halfway meaningful comment.
Your last reply was with me all week. I just loved it. My very own novel :-) It also reminded me of a time, when it could take weeks or month for a letter to get from one continent to another... we are so used to have everything instantly, to communicate at the speed of light, but imagine, how it was back then. You had no idea, how a situation or even the world might have changed by the time your message found its way to the recipient!
Thank you so very much for your kind attention and for your compliment.
See you there 😊
Sorry I missed this for 6 days. I don’t autovote because I like to come and visit my friends here. Meandering through their postings... this one is so moving and profound. I’ve been through such a journey the last 4 years. Transformation really. That’s why I love your Tarot so much. The images express the profound changes many of us work through better than all the words can. Grateful you’re here
The only reason I autovote on a hand full of accounts, is to make sure, I don't miss my absolute "favorites". I always see it in my "reports" right away, when a new post is there. With my recent PC problems I'm really behind with my responses but its always a highlight to see "news" from you 🤩
I think I told you, that I painted my cards after the first five pictures in the order they "came up" in my own life. If I may say so, a piece of art is the strongest and most authentic, when you actually lived it... hope this makes sense...
What fun, I am number 20 so that makes me Judgement. Well, that sounds good, Now I shall be the judge of others!
Letting go of that which is no longer necessary in life is such an important skill that is very hard won and very few can manage.
I recall reading tarot cards for others for fun in my youth. Mostly I did it to see others reaction, I was once told I was uncanny at reading peoples cards, but honestly I just read the people and looked at the pretty pictures.
I love this project it is so amazing. So, it says Unfinished, does that mean you are still to this day making these?
OH wow... 20 to me is a very "philosophical" card, and I find it the hardest to explain. It points towards a very evolved soul with a broad horizon... if one believes in such things ;-)
With letting go, its a little bit like in your husband's "prayer":
...let go of what keeps you down
keep what is really important
the wisdom to know the difference
I can just see you in a dark Victorian dress, intimidating people with uncanny Tarot readings. Knowing human nature helped you a lot, I'm sure! I rarely did it for others, but one time a friend just insisted, since he had problems with his girlfriend.. the usual. Thing is, the cards pointed in a completely different direction of what I had assumed and I just interpreted what I saw in front of me (the problems came from the way he acted)... he turned pale and left without a word!
Unfinished means, that I worked on it from 1994 to roughly 2004... to a point, where I could just not add another brush stroke. I had it in the museum until 2014 as a "work in progress". Now that the place is closed, my paintings are in storage. But thanks to @thermoplastic there might be an opportunity to put it up again in Austria.
That would be amazing to get to have what I assume was an amazing exhibit be up and out for the public to see again. It's sad to think of it all in storage, but that is what happens to our things in the physical world.
In some ways that is what is magical about digital. True, if no one follows a link or is on the site in which your work is displayed it is, in a sense, 'in storage' yet with the click of a mouse it can magically be brought forward again or shown to someone on a whim, like magic!
I did have a fair bit of intimidation in dark flowing gowns, but aren't we all a bit silly in our youth, although, I don't think I've really grown out of my silliness. :)
This makes me think of the Serenity Prayer so beloved of Alcoholics Anonymous:
Also, your painting reminds me of the feeling I get when I can't remember where I left my glasses. How the hell am I supposed to find them when I can't see!
Haha... guess developing your inner eye isn't going to help much ;-)
It won't and he doesn't need his inner eye, when he just has ME find them for him ;) ha ha
Hahaha... lucky man! When I ask my wife: "have you seen my.....", the answer is usually a simple "no". And she makes no effort to help me find, whatever that might be. I love her!
Thank you for your sharing , I found it very interesting for me, I hope you will continue in this direction !! ;)
Thanks, I'll do my best :-)
I love how you changed the name. Pamela Eakins did so too, calling it Karma. Great minds think alike!
Anything else just made no sense to me :-)
I made an interesting mistake here, Karma is the name the Tarot of the Spirit by Eakins gives to no XI, which for her is Justice - using a Kabbalistic path (the branch between Severity, Geburah and Truth, Tiphareth). More on that when I finish my essay on 8/11 (and the sun inbetwen, since 11 is considered a solar number by some, but it's hard to figure out why).
Your title translates for me as Trial (of the soul) or Examination, even Probation. It would be the equivalent of feeling the Effect-part of karma, after the Cause that's been looked at up close in Force. It's an important stage in yoga practice: to pause and let it all flop down heavy to earth, while the soul rises above (frees itself from gravity).
There is, for me always, so much interlinking for cards 8.11.12 that I often jumble them up.
Clearly, from the history of the Tarot, more people have been confused (and experimenting)!
The scales of Justice are entirely dependent on gravity, here the lessons of life test your perception and reaction. The hanged man has surrended fully to gravity - head first - and then again not, for he remains suspended. This you emphasise all the more by not having him hang from anything but keeping him hanging in mid air (on a rope of his his own delusions rooted in thinking). The portal usually depicted by branches from which a gallows is made, IS the trial: which has a free-falling quality to it. The right perception of justice is reflected in the two eyes - taken out for now, to let the cosmic light shine in and out for fresh rooting.
I sometimes find myself lost with English, in that it doesn't adequately describe many things well enough. I too view the Hanged Man as a test (is that the usual definition? I'm not sure) and I think your explanation of it in German terms was pretty good. Thanks for sharing.