Two of Wands — Kitty Kahane Tarot

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Artist: Kitty Kahane

 

I shuffled this deck thinking about a person I don’t know but whom I admire. She’s an artist; I will call her Beaux-A. I draw the two of wands, reversed. The reversed Two of Wands represents fear of the unknown and lack of planning. Ultimately, I don’t know if the card is for her or for me.

 

On one hand, Beaux-A represents qualities in myself that I wish I could express. In this light, the Two of Wands points to the fact that I have failed to express myself sufficiently due to fear of the unknown. The arts seem to me to be a profession of insecurity for the majority who rely on them as a means of support. Thus, I avoided relying on arts as a way to make a living.

 

On the other hand, Beaux-A seems to have a bit of trouble having enough money to pay the all bills. I could say for her this represents lack of planning, but as I said, I don’t know her. Just because she didn’t plan for monetary security doesn’t mean she didn’t plan. When it comes to arts, money is the only thing that can’t be planned. Monetary insecurity was exactly my fear, and thus the reason I have always supported myself by means of manual labor. Labor never payed well, but the pay was consistent*, leaving me to play around in my brain on my own time.

 

I’ll try another tactic: an intuitive reading based on the card image. A man in a bathrobe walks in front of an open window at one edge of the earth. On the other side of the planet, a volcano explodes, shooting far, far into the sky, across the earth, knocking bowler hat off the bathrobed man. Molten rock coats him from head to pocket whereupon the lava flow collides with the sun and is vaporized. The man’s top-half of the man is encased in stone, immobilized; the man’s bottom half walks around sightless. This represents the dichotomy between blind conservatism caused by following the lead of that which one sees as “set in stone” versus the aimless wandering of leaderless legs whose only ambition is to keep moving. And the artist, Beaux-A? She’s relatively safe, firmly anchored somewhere in the middle of the planet, far away from either the bathrobed man or the volcano. That’s where I am, too. We’re not so different, after all.

 

*The pay was consistent until I got pregnant then fired in rapid succession.

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King of Cups — Kitty Kahane Tarot

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

[I have been drawing a lot of other people’s kings lately. I need to get back to work drawing my own kings. Perhaps this one shall have a fish’s tale. A fish’s head? A fish, sitting in a throne…]

 

Artist: Kitty Kahane
Booklet: Lilo Schwartz

 

Shuffling the deck, thinking about some new-found health issue of mine, I thought— “Tell me something about health.” Out tumbled the King of Cups— on his head— reversed.

 

Interpretation: “You rule as king over the world of your feelings. You are accountable for your feelings towards yourself and towards others and you discharge this responsibility with care. Your realm is the sea and you give yourself up to the waves. Dance with them, dive into them, let them flow through you.”

 

Emotions play a large part in all aspects of health. Although this is largely ignored by modern western medicine and its drug-dealing sponsors, it has been explored in depth in eastern medicine. Many renowned western scientists with a more holistic view on health (Candice B. Pert, PhD; Dean Ornish, MD; David Eisenberg, MD; Karen Olness, MD & dozens of or hundreds of others) have explored this topic in-depth.

 

A human being is not a mind and a body, but rather a mind/body. The physical body responds to the way we think, feel and act, a commonly accepted phenomenon called the “mind/body connection.” This also works in the other direction: chemical interactions in the body control our thoughts, feelings and actions.

 

When we are stressed, anxious or upset, the body tells us “something is not right.” The following are common physical signs that emotional health is out of balance:

 

• Back & neck pain • Change in appetite • Chest pain • Constipation or diarrhea • Dry mouth • Extreme tiredness • General aches and pains • Headaches • High blood pressure • Insomnia  • Lightheadedness • Racing heart • Sexual problems • Shortness of breath • Sweating • Ulcers • Upset stomach • Weight gain or loss •

 

Poor emotional health can weaken the immune system. During extended periods of stress, chronic illness becomes prevalent. When we are stressed, anxious or upset, we often do not take care of our health as well as we should. Exercising and eating nutritious foods become arduous tasks. Drug addiction (include such mundane drugs as sugar, coffee and chocolate here), sexual promiscuity, and inappropriate social behaviors are signs of poor emotional health that eventually lead to worsened physical health. Years after emotional health has regained stability, physical health may remain compromised. King of Cups, MD, re-minds us: mind and body are one.

 

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The Hermit — Kitty Kahane Tarot

Thursday, December 15th, 2011
Artist: Kitty Kahane

Booklet: Lilo Schwartz
 
Interpretation: “Follow your Star. // Be true to yourself and follow your own way. You alone know where your star is leading you, therefore do not let yourself be distracted by outside influences and well-meaning counsel…”
 
The hermit seems to have left the house in his bathrobe. Perhaps it is supposed to be an overcoat, but it looks fuzzy. So does his chin. May be he just got up out of bed, threw on a robe and went for a hike. Either way, no one is looking. He’s got a start to light his way and a little birdie on his shoulder.
 
The hermit is the old-man-self. Incorporating more of the past into one’s self allows us to understand what may come of the future. Knowing what may come of the future allows us to see where we are going, to allow time itself to become starlight that shows some roots and rocks in an otherwise shadowy path.
 
I am shy. I like the hermit. I have dreams that I keep hidden in fear of failure, or in fear that others will think them too strange. Perhaps sometimes my star’s a bit dim, because I should have learned by now that the few people I allow to my hermitage do not judge me nearly so harshly as I judge myself.
 
I spend hours alone, reading or doing yoga or wandering around outside and thinking, just looking. I like to see how one thing connects to another— becomes another— is fully and completely inseparate from another. Eventually, nothing that I want to be important seems important at all, and I feel helpless in the face of what is truly important. Whatever that is. At this point, it’s time I call a friend on the phone and talk pure silliness that certainly means nothing but is nonetheless quite crucial.
 
I am the hermit right now in Quebec. Martin is speaking French on the phone. His son refuses to accept that English might be a language of civilized people and suddenly insists he understands none of it: he doesn’t want it spoken in the house. Outside it is raining or snowing something awfully wet. Down the street is a bike path that leads in one direction or the other but veers little and never forks. There are people on the path sometimes. If they spoke to me, I would not understand them. In the sprawling local suburbs there is one box-shaped store after another selling things that we are foolish enough to think might make us happy. A star is a very large, very heavy thing to carry. I want to go home so I can put the star on its shelf for a while and sleep in my own bed.
 

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