Buffy's House -- Corresponds to the first house and Aries, astrologically speaking. The series begins and ends with Buffy, a warrior who is able to kill her lover to save the world. A lot.
Where do I need to develop courage in the coming year? What do I need to slay?
Sun / Hierophant
First I want to say how delighted I am to look at these and know they are not speaking to the current legal issues - I was pretty sure that was where the majority of my year was going to be challenging my sense of courage... this makes me feel hopeful that that will be resolved (or at least at a place of stability rather than 'fight') sooner rather than later.
Instead, these are speaking of something I'd just begun toying with and then set aside when all that hit me... the need to find clarity about my perception and relationship with religion.
Not -A- religion... any form of religion - I've had it brought to my attention in repeated ways that I am skittish about group expressions of spiritual views no matter what form it takes, whether they are views and rituals I share or those I don't. It's the groupthink that bothers me.. the need to stay with the herd, accept the whole package that gets to me - and its just the teensiest bit possible that I'm allowing my fears and distaste keep me from experiences and connections that might be of value to me.
These two cards, seen together, are interesting. The Hierophant, representing religious ideology, shows a male figure with his Kingdom of God crown on his head and a red robe (Will) seated on his throne showing a book that has an image of lunar spirit on one side (a dove hovering over a crescent) and three solar images on the other (the Sun and two stars). One one arm of his chair is a figure of a woman, on the other a man. In the windows, one view is of the night, the other of the day. Two candles are on either side of him - red and white, passion and purity. Everything is compartmentalized and divided... you are this or you are that. The function of religion is to establish order... you're in or your out, the limits and requirements are laid out for you based on your role, there are usually requirements of belief, behavior, identity. It all feels very boxed in and often seems arbitrary.. and even when it isn't..even when there is a reason for the compartmentalization that everyone still remembers, I always feel either uncomfortably limited or expected to go along with aspects that I can't in good conscious honestly agree with.
That in a nutshell is the basis of my issues with religion. (and the PTA, but that's a different subject)
Now, the Sun brings clarity and an innocent joyful approach... it takes these concerns and sees them for what they really are - and standing next to the Hierophant, this looks like spiritual expression rather than religious expression. Many of the same elements are present.. here the Sun and the Moon both share the same sky instead of being bound by the limits of window frames (perceptions). The figures are not lifeless statues, but alive and joyful, and are coming together rather than being separated by the Hierophant's authority. A crown, rather than planted on the head of the heirophant hovers over them both - here they have a joint share in it. Finally, rather than being housed within manmade walls, they are floating above a natural setting, at the center and a part of the space between the mundane world and that of spirit.
To me this suggests that with clarity comes spiritual truth... but also that religion houses at least a construct for that spiritual truth... the elements are there even if they aren't organic or blended.
So what do I need courage for this year? To explore religion without fears that keep me from going near it. What do I need to slay? Those fears that keep me from gaining clarity on this subject. Fears that keep me from seeing that even my distrust comes from putting religion into a labeled box the same way I worry about being boxed in myself.
Should be interesting.
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