Spring Fling Tarot Blog Hop: Saving the Hierophant

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Welcome to the Blog Hop celebrating the Vernal Equinox! See the links above, or at the bottom of this post, to continue navigating through the circle of blogs, and should you lose your place, you can always access the Master list.

(Please note! The URL for this blog has changed to www.firstearthtarotandroot.com)

Our hop wrangler this time around is Ania Marczyk, and she has set a cool task for all of us hoppers: 

"The standard Tarot deck is over 500 years old and the cards are very much a product of that time, particularly the Major Arcana and Courts. So I am asking you to consider which cards you think need to be updated, removed or added to reflect our modern society?

Are there any glaring omissions? What is redundant? Which card has you scratching your head wondering where it fits in today? Or do you think that archetypes are so universal that there is still a relevant place for all, be they Hermits, Pages, Knights or Emperors?"

My basic answer to this is: no, I don't think the deck needs to be changed, updated, or altered in any way. But if I ended on this note, it'd be a very boring post! So I'm going to talk about a card that I know that many people struggle with: the Hierophant. I understand that some people are turned off by this archetype due to negative experiences with organized religion, or because they resent the idea that a spiritual authority figure might hold the only key to the divine. Setting aside the role of the Hierophant as representative of higher education, therapy, and the like, I want to focus on the role that this archetype plays specifically in terms of religion and the spiritual journey, using my own life as an example.

Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot
U.S. Games

I always felt a bit unmoored in terms of spiritual practice, as a kid and young adult. I didn’t have a tradition or framework in which to map my mystical experiences, or spiritual elders (aside from my mother and step-father) to whom I could go for deeper understanding of the mysteries of life. I knew that God existed, without a doubt, and was raised with various aspects of religion and spirituality such as Christianity, indigenous mythology and practice, and Buddhist ideology. I always had some level of sensitivity to "other worlds." I appreciated all religious paths, recognizing all of them as having beauty and truths to offer, while simultaneously understanding that none of them were the “one, true way.” How could they be? We arrive at the sacred in a multitude of ways, we pull it from inside our bodies, surround ourselves with it like an embrace from the sun, consume it with every breath we take. Yes, the divine is within us. However I was deeply missing a sense of anchoring in a specific tradition, a form of practice, and a community.

I came to Lukumí in a roundabout way. When my husband, Jorge, and I first moved in together a decade ago our altars sat side-by-side: my buckskin covered with sage picked from Pine Ridge, stones that carried special significance for me, a small vessel of earth, feathers; his Elegua and Ogun and Ochosi with honey and candy and jacks and pennies scattered about. I never thought much about it (except for once when the cable guy came to fix a cord and I realized that he had a prime view of our pair of altars, and must wonder what he’d gotten himself into by coming into our home!). It was a few years later when we’d moved on to a new house, that I decided to teach our older daughter about the Orishas (divine, saint-like beings). I created a binder for her, and each page contained therein covered a separate Orisha, and all the meanings and associations attributed to him/her. It’s funny – I distinctly remember quizzing her on them - “And Ochosi? What are his colors? Tell me about him.” - and yet I didn’t have any particular impulse at that time to practice Santería; I simply wanted my kids to understand elements of the tradition. To this day I have no idea where that binder ended up….

Wildwood Tarot
Will Worthington

I dove back into card reading more intensively in about 2006 and the years passed. Elegua and Yemaya and Ochun and Obatala, Ochosi and Ogun, had come to feel like family members to me; I cared about them. When my husband went through a difficult time in his life, it was I who lit the candles and put out alpiste for Elegua, who sat at the oceanside and quietly beseeched Yemaya to help heal him. When he took a distant trip, I was so anxious that I prayed with Ogun to protect the car. I didn’t really know what I was doing at the time; I only knew they were part of me, of our household, and that we were part of them, and I did what I could.

It was probably a year later that I had my first consulta with a babalawo in Cuba, and five months after that our close friends from Cuba came to Miami, and we reconnected. The young boy my husband had last seen in Cuba years earlier was now a young man and babalawo, and he would become my padrino in Ifá.  On the night of Ochun’s feast day, September 8th, I dreamed that Elegua, my best friend, came to me and told me that he would help organize my initiation into the religion. It was immensely touching. About three months later I received my Warriors, and two months after that I received ikofá along with my daughters, and my son (who received awofakan).

New Orleans Voodoo Tarot
S. Glassman

The religion of Lukumí has given me a deeply rich and satisfying focus, tradition, and practice for my spirituality. My relationship with the saints is humbling, empowering, strengthening, grounding, and above all, loving. I have a community of practice in Florida and Cuba, family who, along with me, experience the tapestry of life through which Santería/Lukumí is woven. My younger daughter comes to me and asks if she can take a dollar from her birthday stash and give it to her Elegua; I consent, moved by her desire. When she peeks over my shoulder to see what I’m doing online, I tease her: “Mmhmm…. Just like your sign from your itá said, too curious for your own good!” She laughs and walks away.

In Tarot, the card that always pops up in regards to my relationship to my faith community, or to initiation, is the Hierophant. The Hierophant represents tradition, knowledge, group experience, learning, and guidance. All of those are elements of my path in Lukumí. The Hierophant does not say “my way is the only way,” or “I am your only connection to the divine.” The Hierophant is simply a bridge – one of many – to help us understand our lives and explore our faith within the context of a deeply rooted traditional and mystical practice.

Vision Quest Tarot
Gayan Silvie Winter, Jo Dose

In my extended family the Hierophant manifests in many ways: my sister’s love of her Islamic faith, my cousin’s Hindu customs that she has passed on to her children, my brother’s deep Catholicism. All of us coexist harmoniously together. There are touches of Buddhism, indigenous American practices, ancient pre-Christian European influences. All of these are woven into our fabric of life, our spiritual journey, our communities of practice, and the Hierophant’s energy permeates it all.

Call it what you like - The Hierophant, the Shaman, the Master of the Head, the Ancestor, or the High Priest. In all of its forms, it has a sacred and universal place within the Tarot.

Happy Equinox!

(Please note! The URL for this blog has changed to www.firstearthtarotandroot.com)

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Triumph of Life Tarot Project

Andrew Kyle McGregor, owner of the Hermit's Lamp shop in Toronto, Canada, has spearheaded a project called "Triumph of Life Tarot." The aim of the project is to bring together 78 artists to create and donate art for the cards, and eventually to sell the deck and donate the proceeds to cancer research foundations.

Most, if not all, of the participants have been touched by cancer in some way, directly or indirectly. I decided to participate, as cancer has certainly touched my family (my step-father is recovering from prostate cancer, one of my aunts suffered from breast cancer, my grandmother had uterine cancer, and my husband's brother and father both died of aggressive lung cancer). It's a destructive disease that impacts far too many people in our world. Below is the explanation of my process of creating my card for the deck. If you want to keep up with the development of this project there is a Facebook group, and as things come to fruition and are available for purchase I'll also post updates here!

6 of Disks - Triumph of Life Tarot
O. Destrades

 
This is what I've created for the 6 of Disks, acrylic on canvas. First I will discuss color scheme, and to some extent the symbols, and then I'll discuss my thoughts/process:

The 6 of Disks is associated with the Moon exalted in Taurus. Both the Moon and Taurus are also associated with color scales (Moon - blues and silvers; Taurus - red/orange, brown, indigo) so I've represented these scales throughout the image. Taurus colors are noted in the candle and the color of the woman's skin (the earthy, material elements), and the Moon in the blue and silvery qualities in the sky and moon itself.

In Thoth the keyword for this card is "Success" - manifesting things on the material plane. In RWS this is a card of reciprocity, give and take, receiving assistance, guidance, generosity.

In this image a woman sits next to an ancestral altar - a table covered with a white cloth, bearing a lit candle. She looks up at the moon in a deep blue sky. 6 comet-like rays descend toward her. In my spiritual/religious practice, ancestor-veneration is integral. Our ancestors and loved ones that pass on don't remain in the past; they are often here with us in the present. We welcome them into our lives, request their help and guidance, and honor them with physical offerings of candles, glasses of water, and even foods and drinks that they enjoyed in life. Even though we lose physical touch with our loved ones when they pass, they are always available to help support us and aid us in our physical lives, whether via the feeling of companionship, the sense of being grounded in family or spiritual heritage, or even through mundane-yet-important experiences such as looking for work opportunities. We request their help and open ourselves up to receive it.

In this image the woman is alone, but surrounded in a golden glow representative of an ethereal embrace. She is aware of her ancestors, and they are aware of her. She's looking for a connection, her altar candle is burning, and all she has to do is ask. These comet-like rays fall upon her, representing those sparks of insight, gentle nudges, whispers from our departed loved ones as they support us and point us in the right direction on our earthly path.

I asked my brother-in-law Manuel, who died of lung cancer, to give me my card for this project. Mañe (short for Manuel) was diagnosed with aggressive cancer and died before he was able to leave Cuba and reunite with us in the USA. It was one of the biggest blows to my husband (and to Mañe) because they were like soul mates. Mañe is still a part of our lives. We talk to him, honor his memory, ask him for guidance and assistance and clarity, request help with centering ourselves on our paths in order to achieve success in our lives.

One story I can tell: After a year of asking for help conceiving our first child together (my husband was hoping for a girl), Mañe came in a dream and handed my husband a baby girl. The next day I took a pregnancy test and found I was indeed pregnant, and when all was said and done, it was a girl. The relationship that we have with Mañe felt like the perfect example of the energy of the 6 of Disks united with the questions posed by this project.

Our give-and-take crosses paths at the ancestral altar, and positively impacts the physical manifestation of success in our lives.

Samhain Blog Hop 2013 - What I Love

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Welcome to the Samhain Blog-Hop of 2013!  Please click on the labels at the top or bottom of this page in order to visit the other amazing blogs in this circle!

Our wrangler for this hop, Alison Cross, decided to get wild and crazy and pull away from more traditional Samhain themes in favor of something more universal: Love.  A very nice topic!  So as I was pondering what I love, in tandem with the time of year we're currently in, I realized that there is a durable connection between Love and Holidays for me, and a few other things (like Tarot!) that I'll discuss in this post!

I was born the day after Christmas, and so that particular holiday was always deeply special for me.  I loved the sense of celebration that permeates the air that time of year and the seemingly endless parties. One of the most important aspects of this holiday for me was the tradition.  My mother cultivated a beautiful set of holiday traditions that I came to adore, and to count on.  The environment was imbued with mystery and sacredness, and the activities during this time helped support those feelings - the connection to the past that has always been dear to me.  Tree hunting, the smell of pine needles, the first snowfall... hot chocolate and mulled cider, and spicy pfeffernusse cookies.  Decorating with my mother's mother's ornaments, and my own ornaments from my first few years on the planet.  Christmas Eve with a cozy dinner in front of the fire.  And Christmas morning was always a flurry of excitement.  My sister and I would wake up early, and always obeyed the rule we were given that we must not go downstairs...BUT we could stay on the stairs and *look.*  My parents grumbled and fumbled with the coffee maker.  First, presents (youngest goes first), then much later, after we'd almost forgotten them, the stockings.  Then dinner (the traditional pesto lasagna) and then..... I'd remember that the next day was my birthday.  Yesssss........

So now, my oldest daughter's birthday is December 27th; it just got better and better.

Now let me back up a bit.... Halloween/Samhain, Thanskgiving, and Christmas/Yule are my Big Three favorite holidays of all time.  Yes, it's true, I LOVE them.  I love the fact that every month from October to December (and even January if you want to count New Year's) there is a big, wonderful holiday steeped in tradition.

Samhain has always felt to me like a wonderful mix of sacred, haunting spirit with fun creepiness, and some excitement on top.  There's something wild about the night, about the fact that we dress up in disguise, and just at the time when we'd normally be eating dinner and settling in for the evening, we're venturing out into the world in pursuit of adventure, and, of course, candy.  When we would come back from trick-or-treating my mom always had a pot of chicken-and-dumplings on the stove. We'd separate our candy into piles, compare the goods, and warm ourselves within with a big steaming bowl of stew.

Halloween a few years ago...

Thanksgiving carries the same blessed weight of tradition, and one of my favorite memories as a child was watching my mom prepare her special Super Apple Pie and the pumpkin pies the night before.  The next morning I'd sit in the kitchen from morning to afternoon making cranberry sauce, checking the turkey, stewing the onions, peeling the potatoes.  The windows would steam up.  We'd sit around the table for a feast, and later stroll around the neighborhood.  Then on to pie and coffee, and days to come of leftovers.

And then we arrive back at Christmas!

So now's the time to mention how much I love my children three: Isabella, Lourdes, and Gabriel.  It has been a great joy for me to raise them with the traditions that I so adored as a child, and to watch their eyes light up each holiday in anticipation of what's to come.  I'm passing down to them the traditions that I inherited, and perhaps adding a few of my own touches along the way.

So to recap so far, let's review what I love:

-I love holidays.
-I love tradition.
-I love my kids.
-I love passing holiday traditions on to my kids.

And now..... for divination!

I love the connection I feel to spirit, and I love the ability to find guidance and confirmation and advice through the tool of Tarot.  In fact Tarot itself is a tradition which started with my mother, and was a beautiful element of my life growing up.  The first cards I ever used were my mother's Medicine Cards (Jamie Sams), though she herself had the strongest relationship to her Mythic Tarot (Juliet Sharman-Burke, Liz Greene, Tricia Newell).  And now I am passing the art down to my girls (and when my son grows, perhaps to him as well).  They love Tarot, and I must say that my 6-year-old is quite the intuitive reader!

So I want to bring in my favorite deck, which is the Wildwood (Mary Ryan, John Matthews, Will Worthington).  This is a deck that is steeped in a tradition of sorts...spiritual, shamanic tradition of the sort that resonates deeply with my soul.  (To translate: I love Wildwood Tarot).

Wildwood Tarot
Mark Ryan, John Matthews, Will Worthington
Sterling Ethos, 2011

The card in the Wildwood that represents tradition is the Ancestor, commonly known as the Hierophant in other decks. Not unlike the Hierophant, she makes spiritual traditions accessible and pass-onable.  But to me the Ancestor offers some additional, crucial elements.  The Ancestor is primal;  she represents the core of who we are - our spirit connection that goes back before the beginning of time.  She reminds us that we're never truly alone, for the ages of humanity that came before accompany us always.  When I look at her image I hear the words "Remember who you are."  Remember who you really are, which goes far beyond, and yet also embraces, the traditions that we choose to practice.

So, here's to what we love, and here's to Samhain! May the Blog-Hop forces be with you!

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