Sunday, August 12th, 2012

Piatnik-Wien Three-Card Read

I am trying to learn to read tarot cards with unillustrated pips (minors) by merely reflecting on the geometry and colors and whatnot scribbles in the card. My favorite is the Tarot Piatnik Wien, which has beautifully colored un-illustrated pips.

 

I ask the deck to help me free my mind and learn to read unillustrated pips my own way. I draw at random one card for study. Valet de Baton. I am looking for numbers only, no people, so I draw another card. Valet de Denier. My third card gives me Troi de Epees, so I stop here and lay them out in a row.

 

Three of Swords

 

The Valet de Baton wears his fancy buttoned uniform in a field of flowers. The colors are warm. He kind-of reminds me of a British redcoat. He seems as if he is pondering something, tho not something unpleasant. According to the dictionary (one of my favorite references,) a valet is a man’s male servant who performs personal services. I think of batons as sticks. Sticks are natural things that come in all shapes and sizes. They are no longer living. This man is the Valet of Sticks, so he performs personal services for the natural world and those who love it. He likes to be outside doing stuff, but because he is immature, he does not have a great sense of direction in life in terms of what he wants. He knows what he should do, and he knows what is in his line of work, so, in general, he does what he is told. But because he loves the natural world so much, he also loves to explore. This leads him wandering down unexplored paths at inopportune times.

 

The Valet de Denier wears his fancy flower-embroidered uniform near a diamonded fence. He is a young man who performs services for money. Any blue collar worker (and he is blue indeed) can relate to this. He holds a big coin in his hand as if to say, “Hey! I just got my paycheck!” I think he is eager to learn what kinds of things he can do to make money. Until he matures, he might not care so much about the ethical side of the work he becomes engaged in. He knows that money is powerful but he isn’t sure why.

 

The Troi de Epees is black with a yellow border, as are all the epees in this deck. I call them blades. The backgrounds of the blades remind me of chalkboards, and the squiggly designs remind me physics equations or something I can’t comprehend.

 

What this says to me about my ability to read pips intuitively is this:

 

Like the Valet de Baton, I often run off into the woods without a proscribed trail. I do like to follow trails, one after another, but I do not know where I am going and I don’t necessarily care. I simply enjoy the woods.

 

Like the Valet de Denier, I hope to find a tiny bit of worldly success off what I do. But the success I will have at relating to plain pips in a worldly manner without outside influence will be mighty small. However, I know an awful lot and I can learn put it to use.

 

Finally, if I expect to be able to find insight using the pips alone without outside reference whatsoever, I will find nothing but blackness, indecipherable scribbles, and frustration illustrated on the Troi de Epees. This is but a small failure: a normal, every-day failure that occurs when one is not interested enough in the task at hand.

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Sunday, August 5th, 2012

Who is Dan Shanahan?

Dan ShanahanMy brother Dan (see Dan’s Room) has a show in the Shelburne Library here in Vermont.
I went to the library to take pictures of his show.
The pictures I took are horrible: basically reflections of the lights.
 
 
While I was there I met two old ladies talking.
“Are you the artist?” one asked.
“No, she’s not,” answered the other.
“I’m his sister,” I said.
“This is great!” says the one.
“We’re both artists,” says the other. “I do dogs.”
“You had the last show,” I said, trying to sound intelligent, which I am.
She nodded.
“Does he publish?” asked the other.
“No,” I said, “Did you read his statement over there?”
“Yes,” she said.
“It says he’s never published a thing.”
“But he should illustrate books!” argued one.
“I agree,” I said.
“Or magazines,” said the other. “Surely he’s been in magazines.”
I reminded them of the bio.
“Surely, tho, we thought he must have been published somewhere,” said one or the other old lady.
“No,” I said.
“On line,” she said, “He’s published on line.”
“I would like him to put more pictures on my website,” I said.
“I like the woman and the spiders,” said one. “It reminds me of Little Miss Muffet.”
“He sells prints,” I said, “Only $25 dollars, with a mat and everything.”
“Oh, the time to sell art was in the eighties,” says an old lady. The other nodded.
“He was in high-school in the eighties,” I explained.
“Well, the time to sell art was in the eighties,” says the one.
“The eighties,” says the other.
“Nice to meet you,” says the one.
“Tell your brother he should illustrate books,” says the other.
 
So, anyhow. There you have it. We missed out. It was the eighties, the fabulous eighties.
There will never again be any time like the eighties in America.
My brother Dan has lots of excellent pictures.
He sells his prints for only $25, with a mat and everything.
I want him to put more pictures on my site.
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Saturday, August 4th, 2012

Seven of Cups — Tarot of the Absurd

fantasy

 

Fantasy, illusion, imagination, wishful-thinking, choices: these are the meanings of the Seven of Cups. Fantasy represents something unattainable or unrealistic. Illusion is seeing something in the world that is not there. Imagination is useful for coming up with things that have never before been done: new solutions to problems or representing things in a new manner. And wishful-thinking often results in poor choices.

 

 •   •   •

 

I showed the picture to an acquaintance named Joe. He asked what it was about.
“Fantasy,” I replied, succinctly.
“Do you always fantasize about dragons?” he asked.
I shook my head and frowned. “No, never.”

 

He didn’t get it, and he wasn’t interested. He wasn’t interested in what went on in other’s heads and how they viewed the world. He wasn’t interested in symbols and meanings that were different than his own. It was pointless to argue or explain anything to him. He had majored in philosophy long ago in college. It seemed the outcome of his education was the philosophy (Fantasy—? Illusion—? Imagination—? Wishful-thinking—? Choice to believe—? ) that if he argued long & hard enough with someone, he could always bring that person around to see the world in the righteous way of Joe. A person could tell him a story from their own life and if Joe didn’t believe it, that person was wrong. I never argued with him or explained myself. It was pointless.

 

People generally use imagination to fantasize about sex or coming into money or sex or building a huge addition on their house or sex or throttling their boss or sex or drugs or a cigarette or being famous at whatever, and these things are all more or less realistic, tho at times highly improbable. All fantasy is based on reality, even fantastic worlds in works of fiction. The more fantastic a created world is— made-up words, different forces of gravity, never-before-described beings, strange customs, etc.— the more difficult it is for others to relate to that world. In order to be able to appreciate something, we need to be able to relate to it. 100% pure fantasy is actually hard to come by. Abstract art is close. This is why extreme abstraction in art took a while to accept: society did not have a basis on which to relate to the artist’s imagination. With years of practice, we’re coming around.

 

Have I ever fantasized about dragons? No, never, tho I’m sure plenty people do. I used to fantasize that I owned a flying horse who would come down from the sky when I called his name. I would run to him and he would carry me up in the sky, far, far away from school. As the years wore on, it became more and more difficult for me to imagine unrealistic things like growing wings and walking on air. I grew up.

 

My fantasies turned to somewhat realistic things that I wished to attain. My imagination tumbled over creative ways to achieve my goals. This is a mature use of imagination. Making the same mistake over and over and imagining we’re getting somewhere; thinking we can always win an argument if we just argue long enough; believing we have the one and only correct view point; remaining captive to addiction and thinking it does not harm us; and generally falling prey to intoxication and escapism is immature use of imagination.

 

I chose to draw dragons because I see dragons as representational of fantasy. Dragons sitting around drinking tea with politely lifted pinkies? Pure fantasy, impersonal, and kinda sweet.

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Tuesday, July 31st, 2012

Ten of Sticks — Tarot of the Absurd

Upright: hard work, great achievement, burden of responsibility, stress

 

The man in the image has harvested a crop that he has worked hard to grow. His goal has been achieved, but his responsibility has not lessened. The bounteous harvest is no easier to carry than the fields were to work. Lest he lose everything he has invested, he needs to move on to the next part of business and sell his ware. Unfortunately, there are not enough people to help him market the load. There is, perhaps, a more efficient way to accomplish his task than to do it all himself. Unfortunately, although he was quite inspired to create a boon of goods, he remains quite uninspired as to how to lighten his load. There are two main ways to go about it: (1) drop some (2) ask for help. Hopefully he does not turn full-face and make someone else do all the work.

 

*   *   *

 

When I lived in Fairbanks, AK, I biked everywhere, year-round. When I went shopping, I carried groceries home on my back. One time, I bought a bunch of groceries, loaded my bike, and then decided to check out what was on sale at the craft store. They were selling mis-measured picture frames for five and ten bucks each. So I bought a bunch of very fancy frames. Quite a few, really. Some were very very large.

 

Thus, my backpack was over-loaded with groceries, I had about eight picture frames tied to the outside of the bag, and I had a dozen eggs strapped to the top of the bike rack. I started to bike home through the snow. Only ten miles to go! I could do it. I knew I could. There was no doubt in my mind that I could do it. I’d carried heavier. I’d biked through deeper snow. I could do it.

 

Of course, I didn’t have to. There was nothing to prove to anyone. Not even to myself. I called a cab. It felt real good, calling that cab.

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Monday, July 30th, 2012

9 of Sticks — Tarot of the Absurd

hidden enemies

The Nine of Sticks shows three camouflaged people battling with sticks amongst the trees. Are they fighting amongst themselves or grappling with a common enemy? How clearly do they see each other? How long has this been going on? Are they making headway or merely holding fast on the defensive?

 

The Nine of Sticks is about fighting it through to the end. The task at hand is almost complete— so close it seems as if it should be completed already.  Yet there is still more work. The work is perhaps more difficult than first imagined. There are unseen obstacles. Sometimes, such obstruction seems deliberate, as if hidden enemies wait around each corner or behind every tree. Try and try again. Be patient. Be resilient. Be vigilant and carry on. Some times, the greatest battle is the one that takes place in one’s own head.

 

*   *   *

 

I have dreams that I find a desk—
the sort with the front that swings open
to reveal cubbyholes and drawers
and within drawers there are partitions
and under the partitions there are boxes
and within the boxes there are divisions
each opened one after another because
inside there is something secret.
Each time I dream I find the desk
I am overwhelmed with excitement.
Nothing bad ever happens in these dreams.
No one ever finds me snooping.
I have no intent to take anything;
my only intent is to look
to find the last within-within.
The excitement is in opening one compartment
and finding another compartment to open.
There is nothing else.
There is nothing hidden but hiding places.
There is no enemy but that of waking up
before I find the ultimate within—

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Sunday, July 29th, 2012

Eight of Blades — Tarot of the Absurd

sticks rock and a hard placeUpright: isolation, restriction, limited awareness

 

Reversed: change of mind, new point-of-view, freedom

 

The man in the Eight of Blades feels trapped in isolation. This is understandable. He is up against a brick wall with swords pointed at him from every direction. His movement is restricted, his hands restrained. He is powerless. In such a situation, it is easy to feel victimized. The only solution— the only way to escape the situation— is to find one small light in the dungeon. This is the meaning of self-empowerment.

 

Perhaps the ropes are not tied so tightly as he thinks. Perhaps he can work his hands free and, with the freedom of his hands, remove the blades from his body one by one.

 

When we perceive our situation, we gain perceptive on it only from our past experiences. This is what makes us self-aware. Babies, born without self-awareness, become aware bit-by-bit. They experience all sensations for the first time: hunger, heat, cold, tummy-ache. They become aware of body parts: hands, mouth, feet, genitalia. After the initial excitement of awareness, we expect things to remain as they are. Our hands remain our hands. Our face remains our face. This frees us, in that it allows us to move on and become aware of other things: it is very difficult to notice anything else (It’s raining out. OR Something is burning on the stove!) if we are constantly excited by the existence of our own body. However, the expectation that things will remain as they are also becomes the ties that bind us tightest: we expect and even desire that things remain the same.

 

(The devil we know is safer than the devil we don’t know.)

 

When we feel that we are bound inescapably, we need to re-learn our self in order to gain freedom. What are my hands? What can they do? What can I do for myself? We need to be as eager to do things for ourselves as a child learning to walk, to feed itself and to get dressed. We have to be just as willing to look silly. We have to be just as proud of every achievement. We need to re-train our eyes to see any possibility that exists. We need to re-train our minds. Only then do choices become apparent. Only then does the possibility of freedom reveal itself.

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Saturday, July 28th, 2012

Justice — Tarot of the Absurd

 

heart feather scale

 

Justice represents justice, fairness, truth and the law. Justice resides within the ancient Egyptian concept of Ma’at, which contains the philosophies of truth, balance, order, law, morality and justice. Ma’at regulates the stars, seasons, and the actions and interactions of both mortals and the deities in order to prevent the universe from returning to chaos. Equilibrium is dependent upon Ma’at. Ma’at embraces all aspects of existence.

 

Ma’at is personified in the form of a goddess whose primary role in Egyptian mythology is that of weighing of souls of the dead on her balance scale. Those with good, pure-soul hearts that balance lighter than the feather of Ma’at go on to paradise. In other words, those of us who spend our lives upholding the concepts of Ma’at—  truth, balance, order, law, morality and justice— live happily in the ever-after. Maat is the application of Justice, not a list of rules.

 

Ma’at acquired her blindfold and sword and the name Justitia in Roman times. (Justice goes by many names.) The blindfold represents objectivity: Justice does not fear or favor; Justice does not heed big names or name-droppers; Justice does not fold before money or power. Justice has no weakness. She is blind and impartial to outside forces. Her double-edged sword may be wielded against either party in a dispute.

 

Ultimately, understanding of Justice differs in every culture— sometimes by a lot, sometimes by little. Culture is dependent upon shared mythology and history. A culture’s values reside in and are reflected within its notion of Justice. Thus, due to cultural difference, there is no universal concept of Justice. Indeed, her sword has not just two sides, but as many sides as there are peoples.

 

 

Entropy hangs fine:
universe on one side,
universe on the other.

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Friday, July 27th, 2012

The Chariot — Tarot of the Absurd

Evangelists Matthew Mark Luke John

 

By means of will-power, self-assertion, control and determination, the charioteer drives his Chariot on a journey to victory. Any small slip in this control, any loss of direction, any show of overly-aggressive nature, and victory is lost. The eternal struggle to guide one’s own reigns— to control one’s own spirit— is what makes the self-driven strong. Be bold. Be confident. Have faith. Be the master of your spirited self.

 

This is the great journey: the journey of the spirit. This journey is the core focus of any religious faith. In Christian iconography, the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are frequently represented by the angel, lion, ox and eagle, respectively. These symbols originate from the four living creatures that draw the Chariot of God in the vision described at length in the Book of Ezekiel (Chapter 1)* and described more succinctly in the Book of Revelation (4.6-9ff).** Neither source specifically links the creatures to the Evangelists.

 

The meanings attributed to the symbols grew over centuries, as meanings will, culminating in three layers of representation: (1) the Evangelists, (2) the nature of Christ, and (3) the virtues required for salvation, i.e.: the completion of the journey of the spirit. Although the symbols are from Christian mythology, the ideas they represent are universal and can be summarized thus:

 

  • Matthew is symbolized by an angel. His gospel represents Christ’s human nature. It signifies that people should use reason for salvation.
  • Mark is symbolized by a lion. His gospel represents the courageous and royal nature of Christ. It signifies that people should be courageous on the path of salvation.
  • Luke is symbolized by a bull. His gospel represents Christ’s sacrifice, service and strength. It signifies that people should be prepared to sacrifice themselves in order to be saved.
  • John is symbolized by an eagle, believed to be able to look straight into the sun. The eagle represents Christ’s Ascension and heavenly nature. It signifies that people should look into eternity without flinching as they journey towards their goal of union with God.

 

 

In The Chariot of the Absurd, two beasts pull God’s flaming throne, one beast rides it, one beast is part of it’s structure, and the wheels have eyes all around. Where is God in all of this? Why, everywhere, of course: God is one name for the journey itself.

 

 

Book of Kells

 

 

*An excerpt from Ezekiel:

 

…as I was among the exiles by the river Chebar,

the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God…

As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north,

and a great cloud, with brightness round about it,

and fire flashing forth continually…

And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures.

And this was their appearance:

they had the form of men, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings.

Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf’s foot;

and they sparkled like burnished bronze.

Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands.

And the four had their faces and their wings thus:

their wings touched one another…

As for the likeness of their faces,

each had the face of a man in the front;

the four had the face of a lion on the right side,

the four had the face of an ox on the left side,

and the four had the face of an eagle at the back.

Such were their faces.

And their wings were spread out above;

each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies…

In the midst of the living creatures there was something that looked like burning coals of fire,

…and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.

And the living creatures darted to and fro, like a flash of lightning.

…I saw a wheel upon the earth beside the living creatures,

one for each of the four of them.

As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction:

their appearance was like the gleaming of a chrysolite;

…their construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel…

The four wheels had rims and they had spokes;

and their rims were full of eyes round about.

And when the living creatures went beside them;

and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose.

Wherever the spirit would go they went, and the wheels rose along with them;

for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

 

**An excerpt from Revelation:

 

At once I was in the Spirit, and lo,

a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne! …

And around the throne, on each side of the throne,

are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind:

the first living creature like a lion,

the second living creature like an ox,

the third living creature with the face of a man,

and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle.

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings,

are full of eyes around and within,

and day and night they never cease to sing,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

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Wednesday, July 25th, 2012

Page of Sticks — Tarot of the Absurd

Princess Wands Tarot

The Page of Sticks is a light-hearted free spirit who encourages change, exploration and discovery. Unburdened, she comes and goes as she pleases. A creative restlessness smolders within her, emerging as spontaneous sparks from her exploratory mind. With or without a plan, she will give anything a go. Her enthusiasm is impressive, though she does need to be careful to remain focused, lest she lose interest in the project at hand and ultimately waste her own time and the time of those she snared in her net of energy.

 

Ultimately, her passion for living life to the fullest leads her towards a greater understanding of the world. With persistence and balance, her understanding matures her to a person whose creative vision can change the world. However, if she is overly-aggressive, impatient, pessimistic, superficial, lazy, or refuses to co-operate with others, she is heading down a path where her greater understanding of the world will most likely be learned at the school of hard knocks.

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Tuesday, July 24th, 2012

The World — Tarot of the Absurd

 

Fool World Tarot

 

How the Fool had a Grand Misunderstanding, Became Unblinded, and Learned to See the World

 

Initially, I wanted to illustrate the World through lack of illustration, the point being that the world is endless, its boundaries are indefinable, its existence is inescapable. Ultimately I decided not only would it be a very boring picture, it would be doomed to misinterpretation by people who take it to mean that I believe the world does not exist.

 

Nonetheless, the card remained illustrated through lack of illustration due to a lazy muse for many years. Then, many years after reading some general directions on playing the game of tarot, my muse struck (ouch!) via poor memory and misunderstanding the rules of the game.

 

A brief explanation of tarot gaming, via Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis, & Michael Dumett. A Wicked Pack of Cards: The origins of the occult tarot.—

 

“All Tarot games are trick-taking games, in which the cards we have been calling ‘trumps’ indeed play the role of permanent trumps. A player who has the lead to the first trick… may play any card of his choice to the table. Subsequent players… must follow suit if they can, that is, play a card of the same suit as that led, or, if they cannot follow suit, must play a trump; they must play a trump if a trump was led. Only one who cannot follow suit and has no more trumps in his hand is free to play any card he likes. If a trick contains no trump card, it is won by the highest-ranking card of the suit led; otherwise, it is won by the highest trump played to it. The Fool or Matto does not count as a trump; it cannot win a trick, but by playing it the player is released from the obligation to follow suit or to play a trump. It is not normally captured with the trick to which it was played; the player from whose hand it was played takes it back and adds it to the cards he has won in tricks… The object of the game is not merely to win tricks, but to win points on the cards taken in tricks: different cards have different point-values, although all have some value. (The Fool has a high value.) These are only the basic principles…”

 

My misunderstanding was multi-fold:

 

Jessica Shanahan

 

Thus, via my Grand Misunderstanding, the Fool, when played, takes the World, but adds no value to it. “Brilliant,” I thought, “the Fool takes the World!”

 

Blinded, nothing makes sense. Unblinded, things fall into place and the Fool becomes one with the World and its situation. When the Fool gains vision, he sees that he is not the center of the World. Indeed, the World (as opposed to the Earth) has no center: it is an infinite unity that extends in all directions and encompasses all there is.

 

The World signifies completion, achievement and fulfillment. The Fool, unblinded, is able to see the system for what it is and understand his place within that system. Knowledge of the World implies a deeper understanding of one’s effect upon one’s environs and the environment, and the effect of one’s environs on one’s self. The World indicates a feeling of unity and wholeness. As things fall into place, and the Fool becomes ‘one’ with his situation. The Fool, no longer fooled, becomes an embodiment of the World.

 

Thus, the Fool takes the World.

 

Despite the fact that I misunderstood the rules, they are perfectly viable rules provided all players play by rule #1: players must agree upon the rules before commencement of the game.

 

The dog gains his bone and the Fool, unblinded, gains the World.

 

 

 

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