The Space In Between
TAROT: Xii Suspension (Hanged One) / LENORMAND: Coffin, Rider, Letter / ADINKRA: Owo Foro Adobe (A Snake that Climbs a Raffia Tree)
The photo above was taken from my airplane window on the trip from San Diego to Palm Beach. Weather, both coming and going, was a challenge, with Biblically-proportioned rain on each coast. I caught this shot, which I will call The Great In-Between, when our piloted flew above the storm clouds, which lay beneath us like some dark and dense primeval forest. The sun was setting above us, and the crescent moon above the sun had already presented herself for duty. The view outside looked like what the pause between breaths feels like: a suspension of time and space; the moment between the past and future; the place where we are fully in the present, awe-filled at the possibility of….everything.
This week’s cards are a variation on this theme of pausing in the in-between to take stock, reassess, interpret from a new and different perspective. Here they are:
The reading starts with Suspension (XII) - The Hanged One. This is the card which encourages us to see things differently, to contemplate sacrificing one reality for a different one. In very practical ways, I can see how this suggestion applies to me. While I was away, I had to use my cane a lot. I have severe back spasms as a result of two unsuccessful spinal fusion surgeries. It has been a point of pride for me to NOT use the cane, of course to my own detriment. One has one’s pride, of course, but we all know what pride goeth before, AMIRITE? To avoid that proverbial fall, I used the cane. I try to…I don’t know…swagger with it. I chose a bright red cane, to convey a certain insouciance. But, at bottom, a cane is a cane. It is a caving in, a letting go, a nod to the entrophy that is the way of all flesh, and I am not at all a fan of any of that. Entrophy, however, couldn’t care less what I think. I can rail against it or I can take some time in the space of Suspension (XII) and breathe into a new space of surrender, sacrifice, acceptance. And I can make sure to hop on my high tech stationary bike for an hour every day to remind myself that “I cannot do THAT, but I can do THIS.” I can sit in the space of Suspension (XII) and attempt to locate grace.
We too, as a country, find ourself in this Hanged One position as we watch caucuses and primaries and trials. It feels as though we are on the precipice of something which could either save us or destroy us, and the awful part is that we are so divided in deciding which outcome constitutes salvation and which destruction. But, here we are, suspended in that place between breaths, between outcomes.
Lenormand contributes Coffin, Rider, and Letter, and as ever, the cards are apt. There is a claustrophobic feeling to Coffin, of course, not unlike the feeling we have when the pause in between breaths stretches a bit too long. A Coffin, though can alternatively act as a chrysalis, a place of gestation where a path to transformation is paved. Rider suggests that we are the ones who get to decide whether that Coffin is an end point or a beginning. It is the message we convey to the collective about where we stand and why. The Letter is the checks we write, the petitions we sign, the votes we cast.
Adinkra adds its voice with Owo Foro Adobe, the symbol for a snake climbing a raffia tree, which is filled with thorns. Weaving one’s way through it requires attention, patience, and courage, May we weather this hard time with all of those qualities intact, whether it be in the carrying of a cane or the casting of a ballot. May we spend time in the pause between breaths to demonstrate compassion for others and for self. May the Coffin be a chrysalis, and may we as a country emerge as different, new, and whole, dedicated to forming that “more perfect Union.”
Amen and Ase
By the way, since coming back from Palm Beach, my schedule is open for one-of-a-kind Lenormand readings.
May cool heads succeed! A’ho to what you said.