In this video, I use two Celtic Cross readings from different Tarot decks to tell the story of the destruction of Goddess societies 5000 yrs ago and the return of Goddess now.
What a fun take on these two readings, Tereza. A very YOU take I might add. (Of course.)
I'm been re-familiarizing myself with Tarot cards -recently bought the classic Rider-Waite deck. (I assume I've used them in the past, so also assume it will come back to me quick!)
As I'm sure you're aware the suits have elemental correlations: Cups (Water, so tied to emotions), Pentacles (Earth, so management of resources and the material world), Swords (Air and associated with the mental, thoughts, truth) and Wands (Fire and tied to inspiration, creative, explosive and energetic).
Tens; completion, ending of a cycle, renewal, wholeness
I am including the above because that was my approach - and I'm realizing after listening to you, that they can be approached very differently. (Throw the rule-book out!)
And this is interesting to me - using them to tell a big story - Goddess society destruction. This kind of reading isn't something I would have considered so thanks for opening up the larger possibilities in playing with them. As you know, Universe has an interesting way of providing what we need when we need it.
While I've been viewing the iconic images beyond the male/female dichotomy I appreciate this eye towards re-asserting the feminine given our recent male-weighted history. A rebalance is obviously needed.
Also assuming tarot acts as a divination instrument I also imagine it's more challenging to use them to read for ourselves. Hard for us not to get in the way since we're attached to outcome - if even unconsciously.
What do you think? And I'm curious have you done readings for others?
Thanks, T. Best.
All this helpful as I await the reading you generously gifted me from Isaac! :-)
Thanks for explaining all this to me, Kathleen, that's very interesting and adds new depth. I only use interpretive decks, so someone else has added their intuition to the meanings. I like ones that are ambiguous and evocative, and give interesting twists to 'bad' cards.
My Crow Tarot deck has been my go-to, but this one that Veronica gave me has so many layers. The Scottish author is a crazy synchronicity. Instead of my daughters all going on another trip together with me, I'm asking each where they'd want to go with me alone--getting three trips instead of one! Veronica said Bali or Scotland, both of which appeal. I'm binge-listening to a podcast Catchadragon recommended called Windows on the World, and this one's on 'Hebrews in Scotland': https://podcastaddict.com/windows-on-the-world/episode/198784717. I think he really means the Cult of Set motherfuckers. I think Scotland or Ireland is where the Aryan assholes came from originally.
So her delving into the mythologies that preceded the Great Usurping is super intriguing. She stated in one of these that Ra was hidden in the bedroom of Goddess, and I think Isis-Ra-El is another usurping.
The original decks, including the Rider-Waite, were commissioned for royalty, I learned when looking up the name. So there's a reason it's all about the Knights and Pages that serve the Kings and Queens. They're all tied into the Set Cult and are the most superstitious people on earth. But Goddess works in all ways we are open to.
There was a story I just read that I wanted to include: "Tarquin, the ancient Roman king, wanted the Cumaean Sybil to sell him the nine books of prophecies known as the Sybilline Oracles. When the king dismissed the Sybil’s price for the nine, she burned three and asked the same price for six. When the king held out again, she burned another three. In desperation, the king then paid for the three remaining at the price he had refused for the original nine. For two thousand years this has been known as the art of the deal."
When the male god usurped Goddess, did he get her power? Or just enough to trip him up? You may want to write your own interpretations of the cards, as Cassandra did, and draw new images. I'd love to see the Kathleen intuition applied to divination ;-)
In Isaac's reading, I see the King of Cups as tonic masculinity, whose job was to protect and serve the mother as the giver of life. When priestesses had sex (Set-hex word) in the temple, the high priestess representing the Goddess was the exception. She would choose her consort from the young men who'd chosen to be in her entourage. Then, at the end of the year and with her regrets, he would be killed. Or when she was pregnant, the priestesses would strangle him. Or he'd castrate himself with the sacred knife and run through the streets, throwing his testicles into a house that would then provide him with women's clothing to serve as a eunuch.
From the myths, this resulted from Tammuz, the consort, trying to take over the throne while the Goddess was away. In retrospect, it was only ending this practice that allowed Kings to become Supreme and destroy the whole matrifocal system. Men had a choice--serve the Mother or serve the motherfukkers. Enough of them chose the latter so that we're all serving them today. The art of the deal?
Always so happy you watch me and respond, Kathleen!
I had no idea the original deck was commissioned by royalty but now 'duh' - of course. And I love the idea of creating my own images and meaning though I don't mind using the 'classic' deck either, and usurping 'their' imagery/meaning either.
Actually more like rewriting them to better suit us and the times we're in. There is something helpful about ubiquitous agreement on the basics that I'd keep.
Maybe I am missing the obvious, but I'm confused on the priestess story.
"From the myths, this resulted from Tammuz, the consort, trying to take over the throne while the Goddess was away. In retrospect, it was only ending this practice that allowed Kings to become Supreme and destroy the whole matrifocal system."
By ending what practice? Do you mean the practice killing or castrating the high-priestess consort? (Which we would expect blowback from.)
I'd love to see your version. Amy the AI djinni-us was commissioned by Demi Pietchell of The Starfire Codes to do the art for her tarot deck. Her site offers (pricy) readings and pictures the Rider-White. I don't know if she plans to make Amy's deck commercially available by publishing it, or if she uses it for private readings. I'd love to see it! https://buymeacoffee.com/starfirecodes/extras.
Cassandra used an Art Nouveau deck where she liked the imagery but added her own interpretations by creating the book but not the cards. And I agree about the times we're in. We're all Sybils who need to channel the other 6 books! And I love that the king was still trying to play her after she showed that she'd follow through.
On the sacrifice of the son/ consort, it's key to note that these were young men who willingly joined the coterie of the high priestess in the hopes that they would be chosen, knowing how it must end and when. I would assume that they could change their minds at any time before the goddess gamos (since the hieros of that is a hex word). Or maybe up until the high priestess chose them, so it couldn't be used as a power play to reject her after she'd chosen him.
Since divinity was passed through the high priestess, his daughter might be the next manifestation of the Goddess and he would live on as her ancestor. Or he could have no such aspirations, and live a normal life and do the gamos with any other woman or priestess who'd have him.
What he couldn't do was use his position as the queen's consort to usurp the throne. I also wonder if sons of the high priestess were sacrificed at birth for the same reason.
We don't have to speculate, at this point, as to whether this was a necessary safeguard against the male tendency to dominate. We have 1500 years of proof. All the men who protected the Mother were killed. All histories or mythologies of the protection of the Mother were rewritten (including the tarot, I think).
I don't believe balance is possible, any more than I think you can have a chicken coop with half roosters or a herd with half bulls. The male capacity for violence and self-sacrifice is either in service to the Mother, who is in service to the children, or it serves the ego for power over others, which is usurped by the MFkers. I think we need a return to the Matrix, without a high priestess or consort or king or queen.
I have a big stack of Tereza posts saved for this weekend to catch up on. I know I have to devote more than two brain cells to tackle your material and since I’ve been clowning around, brain cells have been scarce.
Hope you’re dancing and reveling in spring as the goddess makes her presence known. 🙌
This is a good one for you, Tonika. I'm eager to show off my fledgling video editing tricks, thanks to Neshma. And if you had any ear-tingling going on, your name was being bandied around with mutual appreciation in the hot tub.
And let me here express my admiration for the twin Trumps! That was masterful, and not a conspiracy theory I'd heard before, but it makes so much sense.
Crone Island all the way!!! I think I learnt that phrase from this juicy thread which echoes your view that caring and care work is importantly for the kinds of communities we want to create and ideally everyone (*cough*men*cough*) would be doing more of it. https://www.metafilter.com/151267/Wheres-My-Cut-On-Unpaid-Emotional-Labor
Although I love the grouchy badger idea too! Keep the ideas coming.
I don’t know anything about tarot so very interesting to listen. I think somewhere you mentioned pentacles /5 being the number to be careful of and I was thinking…but I love starfish! And five fingers on each hand! Haha.
I used to think about love and non-judgment as similar but I changed my mind after my abusive relationship. (I know somewhere you say the second greatest thing in the world Is someone who changes their mind…can’t remember what the first greatest thing was so please do remind me!).
I was trying to be so non-judgmental that I stuck in it for way too long, in hindsight. When he openly talked about killing me or other people, instead of going “this sounds dangerous, I better tell someone and run” [judging the situation as unsafe], I instead got curious, asked questions, the Charles Eisenstein thing of “what is it like to be you”, maintained presence and empathy…nonjudgment etc.
Now I go, “Is the guy taking up all the conversation and not giving me air time? Does he expect me to organise every catch-up and rarely reciprocate? Am I always /mostly the one checking in on how he’s doing and not the converse? Am I making all the meals and him none for me? Does he expect me to listen to all his big feels and not listen to mine?” Some quick judgments have saved me a lot of time down the line. I have limited time in the day so want to focus my energy on people who reciprocate and believe in mutual care, shared relational responsibility, mutual accountability 🙏🏾
I'm so happy you watched my video, LoWa! Did I learn about Crone Island from you? Great thread on emotional labor. My bereavement counselor daughter often uses that term. It's a hard thing to do for a living--wait, let me correct that to 'for a job'--and then come home and do some more.
In the end, no number is inherently evil (which is what I say about vegetables and add, 'only misunderstood') I was just hearing that Base-10 started with the Sumerians. I'm a secret fanatic for Base-12, it makes so much more sense to divide by three primes in your head. I harbor the hope that women had figured that out and that's why we still have vestiges like the yardstick and eggs. In my commonwealth, I want to go back to that.
I thought of you when I added that last part about the first step in forgiveness as taking away the power to do more harm. Who's the speaker on vulnerability who says that women who realize 'he's doing the best he can' are more likely to leave? They stop holding out hope that he'll change. I don't judge but I'm big on consequences.
And the most powerful force in the universe, imo, is two people asking the same question, with more interest in the right answer than in being right ;-)
Love the 12, love me some 3’s and 4’s, and great that you like the emotional labour thread. I have printed the entire 700 pages worth of it and bound it to read, and my neighbours can sometimes hear me shrieking with laughter as I go through it.
Yes love the notion that the first step is to take away someone’s ability to harm…although of course that does require a judgment call that harm is indeed occurring. “He’s doing the best he can…and that’s not enough for me, that’s not the bare minimum to make this relationship tolerable…”
And - if I may be so cheeky - I know you aren’t entirely averse to judgmental language…Charles “fucking” Einstein 😂 In NVC they say all adjectives and adverbs are judgments which is technically correct - beautiful, ugly, crazy, logical, good, harmful, tonic and toxic - and perhaps it is impossible to avoid judgments entirely but helpful to dig beneath and think about what feelings we have and what needs have gone unmet that are non-negotiable. What makes life worth living? What makes relationships worthwhile? What values do we hold most dear?
Like you, I’m big on collaborating better and that requires trust. Trust will always be broken at some point though - we all make mistakes - so that means we need to get better at accountability. And I think it is possible to do that while judging the behaviour rather than the person.
To use an extreme example: Netanyahu’s actions are genocidal and wrong (judging behaviour). Can I make the leap to saying “Netanyahu is evil”? (Judging identity). Perhaps for rhetorical effect but do I really know? What is evil anyway? Is he possessed by evil? Is he innately evil? Is the solution the death penalty? (Or perhaps lifetime hard labour rebuilding by hand everything he destroyed). Is he irredeemable?
I think we often use judgmental language (for identity) as a shorthand when someone’s actions are so egregious or so consistent that we want to emphasise the point…I get that.
Sometimes nothing like a good adjective will do 🙏🏾
Funny that the Rumbler would provide such an apt case in point for our discussion.
I make an unwavering distinction between saying that people are good, bad or evil, and saying that behaviors are good, bad and evil. I know you've heard me say this before, but for anyone else reading: to do good is to alleviate suffering, to do better is to allow people to alleviate their own. To do bad is to cause harm, to do evil is to cause others to cause harm.
When Charles Fukking Eisenstein usurped my phrase and presented it as his own, he enacted bad behavior--in direct contradiction to his claim of 'tonic masculinity.' More seriously, his actions and other stolen ideas are leading dissidents into nonsense gift economies instead of system change, free love communes to end war, and phrases lifted from the Course and turned into spiritual gobbledegook. And he's got some creepy self-sacrifice ideas ... for others.
This and his presentation to Bretton Woods leads me to suspect he's serving a larger evil agenda, one that causes harm through the actions of others. But I'm equally suspicious that he's serving the agenda of Goddess to get us right where we need to be to solve this all. Charles Fucking Eisenstein is me in a different role. He's a figure in my dream, your dream, his dream.
I don't have any anger about what he did. I think it's funny. I'm sure he was inadvertently the reason it got picked up and used to describe Walz. You gotta love the Goddess sense of humor, right?
I've said elsewhere that I don't believe in trust. When someone says, 'I trusted you,' it's like they gave me a gift that made me obligated. I don't want that gift. I give all people the benefit of the doubt that they do what they do for a reason. Understanding why someone does something is important to me, so I know if they are who they say or are serving another agenda. But 'trust' means they owe me something, and I don't see it that way.
Great story of the little boy in your link! I read that slowly. What an excellent point! It's not just men who see it as your fault for 'making' them feel bad when they do something wrong. I have a daughter with that tendency. It's a very interesting pattern, one I'm glad she explained with such an innocent example.
Ooooh very interesting, I didn’t know Eisenstein had spoken at Bretton Woods…I thought that was a one-off conference in 1944? And after some googling I see it was indeed a conference in 2019, hopefully I am looking at the right page - https://www.brettonwoods75.org/program
I’m baffled by the lineup and programme. People from IMF, World Bank, US Treasury, ECB, JP Morgan Chase…meeting with people talking about Schumacher Economics, spiral dynamics, caring economy, ecological economics, whole systems design, local innovation and municipal economics…and doing activities like guided stargazing, tea drinking ceremony, nature walks, yoga, sound meditation, farm to fork meals, watching movies like The Great American Lie…??? Neoliberal trade technocrats talking about caring economies and doing yoga?!
Oh and interesting to hear your thoughts on trust, I have not thought about it like that before and will have to ponder that more.
Alison played a talk that Charles gave to BRETTON WOODS on the 75th anniversary of their post WWII founding, when they established the World Bank and the IMF to move colonization into a self-managing economic model. The audience included central bankers and hedge fund managers, spiritual gurus like Riane Eisler and economic kingpins like Larry Summers. What did Eisenstein say to this gathering? He channeled the voice of the earth:
"I am Gaia and I’m dying. It’s already too late. There’s another spirit waiting to inhabit the earth. There will come a time of giving and receiving equally but first, we need to show our fitness for this partnership through gifts in the courtship of Lover Earth."
What are the gifts that Lover Earth wants? In a previous stack, Charles showed an animation of his story called The Fall. The figures, representing indigenous, black and all other minorities, go on this journey. They reach the end at a cliff, so they can go no farther. Standing on the edge of a giant eye, they see images of great strife and hardship, conflict and war and famine. A tear trickles down a woman’s cheek. They hold hands and silently nod. Starting with the woman, they fall into the abyss.
It’s a mass suicide, an extinction, a willing blood sacrifice to the volcano god. I remember thinking at the time, this is dark. Is this supposed to be inspirational? But that’s the gift that Gaia wants—our lives—so we can make way for the other spirit that’s waiting to inhabit the earth. WTF?
"Thanks, Martin, for giving me a new example of patronizing! To paraphrase, "God has no sex and He told me His name was Yehovaaaa. You 'use excellent presentation technique', what a shame you present your own ideas about God, who I can describe authoritatively from my own direct experience of Him talking to me, and can tell you your experiences of Goddess are wrong. While my God's approval of my name for Him filled me with happiness, your use of the feminine is just making conflicts between men and women for the lower awareness! As long as God is He, there's no conflict! Women are in their place."
Sounds like every guy I know. “Talking about problems is causing problems! Lalala not listening!”
[except in this case you’re talking about solutions too]
There’s an article somewhere called “Men have been telling women to shut up for at least 3000 years”.
Women are always told off for naming shitty behaviour and told they are “causing conflicts” because the man’s default is his peace and comfort at all costs and only his views count - so if he doesn’t think there is a problem, there isn’t a problem! Case closed.
But let’s get the logic clear here: Men like that Rumble poster are the ones causing conflicts. Women are simply naming them, and trying to collaboratively resolve them.
The variation of “not all men” is “I feel bad when you say that.” Which goes back to our earlier conversation about accountability! What a brilliant way to avoid accountability…I think the freedom movement has little hope if half its population are unable to do accountability well — how are we meant to build trust and repair breaks in connection?
Here is his response, which I've saved in a draft since he keeps deleting them:
"Please do not patronize me when I make a small mistake, when it is clear what I mean! I am not patronizing you. Maybe you are talking about yourself? Are you talking down to me? For me truth is important. I hope we can agree that God, the higher awareness is neither a human man or a human woman but a higher awareness? Can we agree that a "god" is an entity that is worshiped, and in old religions they had many gods and sexes. In the culture of the Vikings, Freja was a female fertility god. I hope you do not have a trauma linked to a bad father and let that trauma control you spiritually."
I answered: "I’ll answer your other comment here, Martin, where you ask if I'm patronizing you and say that 'truth is important to you.' I wasn't talking about your 'small mistake', which I'm not sure what that is. I'm talking about your overall patriarchal and patronizing assumption that the name and gender of the Bible's god is real. The god of the Torah is absolutely, 100% male.
"You say: so can we agree that 'God, the higher awareness is neither a human man or a human woman but a higher awareness? Can we agree that a "god" is an entity that is worshiped, and in old religions they had many gods and sexes.'
"So you say that God, capitalized, is a higher awareness but if gendered, as the Bible does, must be male. To gender god as female is to talk about pagan gods from 'old religions.'
"I have your comments saved, so that readers can decide for themselves whether you are being patronizing when you 'praise' my presentation technique but then admonish me to 'use it well.' They can also decide whether hoping I don't have 'a trauma linked to a bad father and let that trauma control you spiritually' is condescending."
I then quote you and end with:
"I'm not talking down to you, Martin. I'm pointing out that you're talking down to me and don't even recognize it because you consider your views the default."
“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”
When he is accustomed to having his views unquestioned, anyone questioning his views feels like subjugation. There are a bunch of scientific papers showing men routinely underestimate the power they hold and feel “powerless” (meany mean wife is oppressing him!) even in situations where they hold relative power.
You are insightful and poetic, Isaac, but you can only play the cards you're dealt. This was really a dismal reading and there was no way to play it as good--except as not meant for me, but for the Aryan assholes.
So glad you watched and I got to show off the new video tricks that Neshma taught me. Now I'm Ken Burnsing everything I see!
Interesting the final card was Justice. That’s a very uplifting way to end your exercise. No denying however that Justice is not Judgment. Nature (I associate as feminine) is definitely not judgmental. The way forward, various strategies, and action is through Nature’s examples, teachings, guidance, and under her protection until Justice is attained. The skeptic in me would say that card that was staged. Even if it was, it serves a purpose. Thanks for the thoughts.
Haha, I will admit to what was somewhat staged. Somewhere in that final four-card sequence, I pulled two cards together and decided to use them both. So the cups in order of 5, 4, 3 probably had two due to lack of shuffling, since that's a fairly new deck. But Justice came up 'randomly' after the Coven.
The word always makes me think of my youngest daughter, with the Fuck Israel sticker on her phone. She is a stickler for justice ;-) I myself often have problems with that word because it's usually taken as judgment. I had to look up Tarot decks to see if Justice and Judgment are separate cards, which they are.
The philanthropath in the classic deck is holding the scales of justice, remember. He's deciding who is worthy to receive the pennies he distributes after he's stolen the means of survival from the Goddess cultures. Usually 'justice' is being meted out by those who are immune from it, yes?
I'm looking to unfurl the triple negatives in 'no denying', 'however' (which usually means a contrary thought) and 'Justice is not Judgment.' I can't figure out whether you agree with my statement or are saying that Justice IS Judgment.
I was thinking that my next 'feminine' post will be on Love as a hex word, having come to mean judgment of who is worthy of our affections. Love in its true sense is a passive state of non-judgment. It's neutral, not positive or negative. A mother doesn't decide between her children who deserves love and who deserves punishment. That's not the way mothers think.
So the first step in Justice is the same as in Forgiveness--taking away the ability to cause further harm. That's a kindness to the perpetrators as well as the victims. First, end the power of the usurpers to take our homes and labor. Once we've taken power over ourselves back, let Nature take her course.
I guess I used however to transition the sentence. My writing is often plagued by double negatives which real writers are quick to point out. I’m an engineer, not a writer. And everyone knows engineers are lousy non-technical writers. I take Justice to be neutral without prejudice and universal truth redeemed. Judgement can be untrue and wielded by anyone. Just as the card said. So I don’t view them the same. Just my definitions or is this just semantics? (See Crow this am, lol).
I learnt so much about Tarot from these readings, Tereza. I’ve never really felt the RW deck — your descriptions of the imperious (“noble”) characters within it are similar to how I perceived them. What a great idea to expand the interpretation from you personally to the times we live in. Milady, I had so much fun being part of this video with you.
I started to write a comment and then got pulled away and lost the whole damn novel long paragraph. Sheesh. Probably just as well. Who want to hear me ramble on and on.
The gist of it was that this was quite the interpretation, the goddess would be proud. Divinity and devil are related? Eve and evil are related? Ugh, it’s exhausting. Why can’t we see the god inside each and everyone of us without having inferiority or superiority weaved into our relationships?
I hope your daughters are having a grand adventure! How cool is that?!? Greece! Be still my heart!
What a fun take on these two readings, Tereza. A very YOU take I might add. (Of course.)
I'm been re-familiarizing myself with Tarot cards -recently bought the classic Rider-Waite deck. (I assume I've used them in the past, so also assume it will come back to me quick!)
As I'm sure you're aware the suits have elemental correlations: Cups (Water, so tied to emotions), Pentacles (Earth, so management of resources and the material world), Swords (Air and associated with the mental, thoughts, truth) and Wands (Fire and tied to inspiration, creative, explosive and energetic).
The numbers have standard correlations as well:
Aces: new beginnings, potential, opportunities
Twos: partnerships, relationships, balance, choices, duality
Threes: creation, groups, growth, collaboration
Fours: stability, foundations
Fives: conflict, change
Sixes: harmony, growth, cooperation
Sevens: achievement, understanding, reflection
Eights: action, accomplishment
Nines: fulfillment, fruition, manifestations completed
Tens; completion, ending of a cycle, renewal, wholeness
I am including the above because that was my approach - and I'm realizing after listening to you, that they can be approached very differently. (Throw the rule-book out!)
And this is interesting to me - using them to tell a big story - Goddess society destruction. This kind of reading isn't something I would have considered so thanks for opening up the larger possibilities in playing with them. As you know, Universe has an interesting way of providing what we need when we need it.
While I've been viewing the iconic images beyond the male/female dichotomy I appreciate this eye towards re-asserting the feminine given our recent male-weighted history. A rebalance is obviously needed.
Also assuming tarot acts as a divination instrument I also imagine it's more challenging to use them to read for ourselves. Hard for us not to get in the way since we're attached to outcome - if even unconsciously.
What do you think? And I'm curious have you done readings for others?
Thanks, T. Best.
All this helpful as I await the reading you generously gifted me from Isaac! :-)
Thanks for explaining all this to me, Kathleen, that's very interesting and adds new depth. I only use interpretive decks, so someone else has added their intuition to the meanings. I like ones that are ambiguous and evocative, and give interesting twists to 'bad' cards.
My Crow Tarot deck has been my go-to, but this one that Veronica gave me has so many layers. The Scottish author is a crazy synchronicity. Instead of my daughters all going on another trip together with me, I'm asking each where they'd want to go with me alone--getting three trips instead of one! Veronica said Bali or Scotland, both of which appeal. I'm binge-listening to a podcast Catchadragon recommended called Windows on the World, and this one's on 'Hebrews in Scotland': https://podcastaddict.com/windows-on-the-world/episode/198784717. I think he really means the Cult of Set motherfuckers. I think Scotland or Ireland is where the Aryan assholes came from originally.
So her delving into the mythologies that preceded the Great Usurping is super intriguing. She stated in one of these that Ra was hidden in the bedroom of Goddess, and I think Isis-Ra-El is another usurping.
The original decks, including the Rider-Waite, were commissioned for royalty, I learned when looking up the name. So there's a reason it's all about the Knights and Pages that serve the Kings and Queens. They're all tied into the Set Cult and are the most superstitious people on earth. But Goddess works in all ways we are open to.
There was a story I just read that I wanted to include: "Tarquin, the ancient Roman king, wanted the Cumaean Sybil to sell him the nine books of prophecies known as the Sybilline Oracles. When the king dismissed the Sybil’s price for the nine, she burned three and asked the same price for six. When the king held out again, she burned another three. In desperation, the king then paid for the three remaining at the price he had refused for the original nine. For two thousand years this has been known as the art of the deal."
This was in Unz Review regarding Trump (the crowned fool) refusing Russia's offer of peace for keeping the four regions of Ukraine they now occupy. Putin then upped the conditions to five: https://www.unz.com/article/trump-the-europeans-and-zelensky-dont-know-the-lesson-of-the-arrogant-king-and-the-burning-of-the-oracles.
When the male god usurped Goddess, did he get her power? Or just enough to trip him up? You may want to write your own interpretations of the cards, as Cassandra did, and draw new images. I'd love to see the Kathleen intuition applied to divination ;-)
In Isaac's reading, I see the King of Cups as tonic masculinity, whose job was to protect and serve the mother as the giver of life. When priestesses had sex (Set-hex word) in the temple, the high priestess representing the Goddess was the exception. She would choose her consort from the young men who'd chosen to be in her entourage. Then, at the end of the year and with her regrets, he would be killed. Or when she was pregnant, the priestesses would strangle him. Or he'd castrate himself with the sacred knife and run through the streets, throwing his testicles into a house that would then provide him with women's clothing to serve as a eunuch.
From the myths, this resulted from Tammuz, the consort, trying to take over the throne while the Goddess was away. In retrospect, it was only ending this practice that allowed Kings to become Supreme and destroy the whole matrifocal system. Men had a choice--serve the Mother or serve the motherfukkers. Enough of them chose the latter so that we're all serving them today. The art of the deal?
Always so happy you watch me and respond, Kathleen!
Thanks for the rich reply.
I had no idea the original deck was commissioned by royalty but now 'duh' - of course. And I love the idea of creating my own images and meaning though I don't mind using the 'classic' deck either, and usurping 'their' imagery/meaning either.
Actually more like rewriting them to better suit us and the times we're in. There is something helpful about ubiquitous agreement on the basics that I'd keep.
Maybe I am missing the obvious, but I'm confused on the priestess story.
"From the myths, this resulted from Tammuz, the consort, trying to take over the throne while the Goddess was away. In retrospect, it was only ending this practice that allowed Kings to become Supreme and destroy the whole matrifocal system."
By ending what practice? Do you mean the practice killing or castrating the high-priestess consort? (Which we would expect blowback from.)
Thanks, T.
I'd love to see your version. Amy the AI djinni-us was commissioned by Demi Pietchell of The Starfire Codes to do the art for her tarot deck. Her site offers (pricy) readings and pictures the Rider-White. I don't know if she plans to make Amy's deck commercially available by publishing it, or if she uses it for private readings. I'd love to see it! https://buymeacoffee.com/starfirecodes/extras.
Cassandra used an Art Nouveau deck where she liked the imagery but added her own interpretations by creating the book but not the cards. And I agree about the times we're in. We're all Sybils who need to channel the other 6 books! And I love that the king was still trying to play her after she showed that she'd follow through.
On the sacrifice of the son/ consort, it's key to note that these were young men who willingly joined the coterie of the high priestess in the hopes that they would be chosen, knowing how it must end and when. I would assume that they could change their minds at any time before the goddess gamos (since the hieros of that is a hex word). Or maybe up until the high priestess chose them, so it couldn't be used as a power play to reject her after she'd chosen him.
Since divinity was passed through the high priestess, his daughter might be the next manifestation of the Goddess and he would live on as her ancestor. Or he could have no such aspirations, and live a normal life and do the gamos with any other woman or priestess who'd have him.
What he couldn't do was use his position as the queen's consort to usurp the throne. I also wonder if sons of the high priestess were sacrificed at birth for the same reason.
We don't have to speculate, at this point, as to whether this was a necessary safeguard against the male tendency to dominate. We have 1500 years of proof. All the men who protected the Mother were killed. All histories or mythologies of the protection of the Mother were rewritten (including the tarot, I think).
I don't believe balance is possible, any more than I think you can have a chicken coop with half roosters or a herd with half bulls. The male capacity for violence and self-sacrifice is either in service to the Mother, who is in service to the children, or it serves the ego for power over others, which is usurped by the MFkers. I think we need a return to the Matrix, without a high priestess or consort or king or queen.
I have a big stack of Tereza posts saved for this weekend to catch up on. I know I have to devote more than two brain cells to tackle your material and since I’ve been clowning around, brain cells have been scarce.
Hope you’re dancing and reveling in spring as the goddess makes her presence known. 🙌
This is a good one for you, Tonika. I'm eager to show off my fledgling video editing tricks, thanks to Neshma. And if you had any ear-tingling going on, your name was being bandied around with mutual appreciation in the hot tub.
And let me here express my admiration for the twin Trumps! That was masterful, and not a conspiracy theory I'd heard before, but it makes so much sense.
Ooo, video tricks by Neshma? Sweet! I’m eager to see it.
Isaac opened my eyes to twin Trump theory as well. That wombat digs into places I would never thought existed!
MPX & TZC totally missed you, TNK!
I was with you in spirit, MPX! Thanks for saying so. And I get my very own abbreviation!?! 😍😍😍
From the first phone call you were awarded your very own MPX-ordained airport code name, dear amiga.
I am moved and honored! ❤️
Crone Island all the way!!! I think I learnt that phrase from this juicy thread which echoes your view that caring and care work is importantly for the kinds of communities we want to create and ideally everyone (*cough*men*cough*) would be doing more of it. https://www.metafilter.com/151267/Wheres-My-Cut-On-Unpaid-Emotional-Labor
Although I love the grouchy badger idea too! Keep the ideas coming.
I don’t know anything about tarot so very interesting to listen. I think somewhere you mentioned pentacles /5 being the number to be careful of and I was thinking…but I love starfish! And five fingers on each hand! Haha.
I used to think about love and non-judgment as similar but I changed my mind after my abusive relationship. (I know somewhere you say the second greatest thing in the world Is someone who changes their mind…can’t remember what the first greatest thing was so please do remind me!).
I was trying to be so non-judgmental that I stuck in it for way too long, in hindsight. When he openly talked about killing me or other people, instead of going “this sounds dangerous, I better tell someone and run” [judging the situation as unsafe], I instead got curious, asked questions, the Charles Eisenstein thing of “what is it like to be you”, maintained presence and empathy…nonjudgment etc.
Now I go, “Is the guy taking up all the conversation and not giving me air time? Does he expect me to organise every catch-up and rarely reciprocate? Am I always /mostly the one checking in on how he’s doing and not the converse? Am I making all the meals and him none for me? Does he expect me to listen to all his big feels and not listen to mine?” Some quick judgments have saved me a lot of time down the line. I have limited time in the day so want to focus my energy on people who reciprocate and believe in mutual care, shared relational responsibility, mutual accountability 🙏🏾
I'm so happy you watched my video, LoWa! Did I learn about Crone Island from you? Great thread on emotional labor. My bereavement counselor daughter often uses that term. It's a hard thing to do for a living--wait, let me correct that to 'for a job'--and then come home and do some more.
In the end, no number is inherently evil (which is what I say about vegetables and add, 'only misunderstood') I was just hearing that Base-10 started with the Sumerians. I'm a secret fanatic for Base-12, it makes so much more sense to divide by three primes in your head. I harbor the hope that women had figured that out and that's why we still have vestiges like the yardstick and eggs. In my commonwealth, I want to go back to that.
I thought of you when I added that last part about the first step in forgiveness as taking away the power to do more harm. Who's the speaker on vulnerability who says that women who realize 'he's doing the best he can' are more likely to leave? They stop holding out hope that he'll change. I don't judge but I'm big on consequences.
And the most powerful force in the universe, imo, is two people asking the same question, with more interest in the right answer than in being right ;-)
Love the 12, love me some 3’s and 4’s, and great that you like the emotional labour thread. I have printed the entire 700 pages worth of it and bound it to read, and my neighbours can sometimes hear me shrieking with laughter as I go through it.
Yes love the notion that the first step is to take away someone’s ability to harm…although of course that does require a judgment call that harm is indeed occurring. “He’s doing the best he can…and that’s not enough for me, that’s not the bare minimum to make this relationship tolerable…”
And - if I may be so cheeky - I know you aren’t entirely averse to judgmental language…Charles “fucking” Einstein 😂 In NVC they say all adjectives and adverbs are judgments which is technically correct - beautiful, ugly, crazy, logical, good, harmful, tonic and toxic - and perhaps it is impossible to avoid judgments entirely but helpful to dig beneath and think about what feelings we have and what needs have gone unmet that are non-negotiable. What makes life worth living? What makes relationships worthwhile? What values do we hold most dear?
Like you, I’m big on collaborating better and that requires trust. Trust will always be broken at some point though - we all make mistakes - so that means we need to get better at accountability. And I think it is possible to do that while judging the behaviour rather than the person.
To use an extreme example: Netanyahu’s actions are genocidal and wrong (judging behaviour). Can I make the leap to saying “Netanyahu is evil”? (Judging identity). Perhaps for rhetorical effect but do I really know? What is evil anyway? Is he possessed by evil? Is he innately evil? Is the solution the death penalty? (Or perhaps lifetime hard labour rebuilding by hand everything he destroyed). Is he irredeemable?
I think we often use judgmental language (for identity) as a shorthand when someone’s actions are so egregious or so consistent that we want to emphasise the point…I get that.
Sometimes nothing like a good adjective will do 🙏🏾
Funny that the Rumbler would provide such an apt case in point for our discussion.
I make an unwavering distinction between saying that people are good, bad or evil, and saying that behaviors are good, bad and evil. I know you've heard me say this before, but for anyone else reading: to do good is to alleviate suffering, to do better is to allow people to alleviate their own. To do bad is to cause harm, to do evil is to cause others to cause harm.
When Charles Fukking Eisenstein usurped my phrase and presented it as his own, he enacted bad behavior--in direct contradiction to his claim of 'tonic masculinity.' More seriously, his actions and other stolen ideas are leading dissidents into nonsense gift economies instead of system change, free love communes to end war, and phrases lifted from the Course and turned into spiritual gobbledegook. And he's got some creepy self-sacrifice ideas ... for others.
This and his presentation to Bretton Woods leads me to suspect he's serving a larger evil agenda, one that causes harm through the actions of others. But I'm equally suspicious that he's serving the agenda of Goddess to get us right where we need to be to solve this all. Charles Fucking Eisenstein is me in a different role. He's a figure in my dream, your dream, his dream.
I don't have any anger about what he did. I think it's funny. I'm sure he was inadvertently the reason it got picked up and used to describe Walz. You gotta love the Goddess sense of humor, right?
I've said elsewhere that I don't believe in trust. When someone says, 'I trusted you,' it's like they gave me a gift that made me obligated. I don't want that gift. I give all people the benefit of the doubt that they do what they do for a reason. Understanding why someone does something is important to me, so I know if they are who they say or are serving another agenda. But 'trust' means they owe me something, and I don't see it that way.
Great story of the little boy in your link! I read that slowly. What an excellent point! It's not just men who see it as your fault for 'making' them feel bad when they do something wrong. I have a daughter with that tendency. It's a very interesting pattern, one I'm glad she explained with such an innocent example.
Ooooh very interesting, I didn’t know Eisenstein had spoken at Bretton Woods…I thought that was a one-off conference in 1944? And after some googling I see it was indeed a conference in 2019, hopefully I am looking at the right page - https://www.brettonwoods75.org/program
I’m baffled by the lineup and programme. People from IMF, World Bank, US Treasury, ECB, JP Morgan Chase…meeting with people talking about Schumacher Economics, spiral dynamics, caring economy, ecological economics, whole systems design, local innovation and municipal economics…and doing activities like guided stargazing, tea drinking ceremony, nature walks, yoga, sound meditation, farm to fork meals, watching movies like The Great American Lie…??? Neoliberal trade technocrats talking about caring economies and doing yoga?!
Oh and interesting to hear your thoughts on trust, I have not thought about it like that before and will have to ponder that more.
Yes, this episode goes into the bigger con, as exposed by Alison MacDowell: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/deep-fakes-eisenstein-and-rfk. I think it gets very, very dark:
Alison played a talk that Charles gave to BRETTON WOODS on the 75th anniversary of their post WWII founding, when they established the World Bank and the IMF to move colonization into a self-managing economic model. The audience included central bankers and hedge fund managers, spiritual gurus like Riane Eisler and economic kingpins like Larry Summers. What did Eisenstein say to this gathering? He channeled the voice of the earth:
"I am Gaia and I’m dying. It’s already too late. There’s another spirit waiting to inhabit the earth. There will come a time of giving and receiving equally but first, we need to show our fitness for this partnership through gifts in the courtship of Lover Earth."
What are the gifts that Lover Earth wants? In a previous stack, Charles showed an animation of his story called The Fall. The figures, representing indigenous, black and all other minorities, go on this journey. They reach the end at a cliff, so they can go no farther. Standing on the edge of a giant eye, they see images of great strife and hardship, conflict and war and famine. A tear trickles down a woman’s cheek. They hold hands and silently nod. Starting with the woman, they fall into the abyss.
It’s a mass suicide, an extinction, a willing blood sacrifice to the volcano god. I remember thinking at the time, this is dark. Is this supposed to be inspirational? But that’s the gift that Gaia wants—our lives—so we can make way for the other spirit that’s waiting to inhabit the earth. WTF?
Goodness me! It really does sound dark!! Only just started Alison’s vids on that page, I will have time dedicate time to this. Yikes!
Yes I remember watching The Fall awhile back…now I’m thinking, why aren’t the billionaires plunging into the abyss 😅
Here’s the poster for Crone Island someone created as a result of that thread:
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/387/19302847283_1f9c370156_o.jpg
Margaritas, tacos, sisterhood… love it!
You will like this reply I sent on my Rumble posting, with the person I replied to here: https://rumble.com/v6tsdev-goddess-crossed.html#comment-585325521.
"Thanks, Martin, for giving me a new example of patronizing! To paraphrase, "God has no sex and He told me His name was Yehovaaaa. You 'use excellent presentation technique', what a shame you present your own ideas about God, who I can describe authoritatively from my own direct experience of Him talking to me, and can tell you your experiences of Goddess are wrong. While my God's approval of my name for Him filled me with happiness, your use of the feminine is just making conflicts between men and women for the lower awareness! As long as God is He, there's no conflict! Women are in their place."
Goddess bless, Martin."
Sounds like every guy I know. “Talking about problems is causing problems! Lalala not listening!”
[except in this case you’re talking about solutions too]
There’s an article somewhere called “Men have been telling women to shut up for at least 3000 years”.
Women are always told off for naming shitty behaviour and told they are “causing conflicts” because the man’s default is his peace and comfort at all costs and only his views count - so if he doesn’t think there is a problem, there isn’t a problem! Case closed.
But let’s get the logic clear here: Men like that Rumble poster are the ones causing conflicts. Women are simply naming them, and trying to collaboratively resolve them.
The variation of “not all men” is “I feel bad when you say that.” Which goes back to our earlier conversation about accountability! What a brilliant way to avoid accountability…I think the freedom movement has little hope if half its population are unable to do accountability well — how are we meant to build trust and repair breaks in connection?
https://norasamaran.com/2016/02/10/variations-on-not-all-men/
Here is his response, which I've saved in a draft since he keeps deleting them:
"Please do not patronize me when I make a small mistake, when it is clear what I mean! I am not patronizing you. Maybe you are talking about yourself? Are you talking down to me? For me truth is important. I hope we can agree that God, the higher awareness is neither a human man or a human woman but a higher awareness? Can we agree that a "god" is an entity that is worshiped, and in old religions they had many gods and sexes. In the culture of the Vikings, Freja was a female fertility god. I hope you do not have a trauma linked to a bad father and let that trauma control you spiritually."
I answered: "I’ll answer your other comment here, Martin, where you ask if I'm patronizing you and say that 'truth is important to you.' I wasn't talking about your 'small mistake', which I'm not sure what that is. I'm talking about your overall patriarchal and patronizing assumption that the name and gender of the Bible's god is real. The god of the Torah is absolutely, 100% male.
"You say: so can we agree that 'God, the higher awareness is neither a human man or a human woman but a higher awareness? Can we agree that a "god" is an entity that is worshiped, and in old religions they had many gods and sexes.'
"So you say that God, capitalized, is a higher awareness but if gendered, as the Bible does, must be male. To gender god as female is to talk about pagan gods from 'old religions.'
"I have your comments saved, so that readers can decide for themselves whether you are being patronizing when you 'praise' my presentation technique but then admonish me to 'use it well.' They can also decide whether hoping I don't have 'a trauma linked to a bad father and let that trauma control you spiritually' is condescending."
I then quote you and end with:
"I'm not talking down to you, Martin. I'm pointing out that you're talking down to me and don't even recognize it because you consider your views the default."
Boom! Mic drop at the end 👏
“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”
When he is accustomed to having his views unquestioned, anyone questioning his views feels like subjugation. There are a bunch of scientific papers showing men routinely underestimate the power they hold and feel “powerless” (meany mean wife is oppressing him!) even in situations where they hold relative power.
Dang, so good. I relate bigtime.
Ell oh ell, as we say 'round these here (private) parts.
Lol and there was I scrambling to find some mundane meaning in the card madness. I’m very happy I could be an unwitting conduit for such a tale!
You are insightful and poetic, Isaac, but you can only play the cards you're dealt. This was really a dismal reading and there was no way to play it as good--except as not meant for me, but for the Aryan assholes.
So glad you watched and I got to show off the new video tricks that Neshma taught me. Now I'm Ken Burnsing everything I see!
Burns, baby, burns! 🔥👏🏽
Interesting the final card was Justice. That’s a very uplifting way to end your exercise. No denying however that Justice is not Judgment. Nature (I associate as feminine) is definitely not judgmental. The way forward, various strategies, and action is through Nature’s examples, teachings, guidance, and under her protection until Justice is attained. The skeptic in me would say that card that was staged. Even if it was, it serves a purpose. Thanks for the thoughts.
Haha, I will admit to what was somewhat staged. Somewhere in that final four-card sequence, I pulled two cards together and decided to use them both. So the cups in order of 5, 4, 3 probably had two due to lack of shuffling, since that's a fairly new deck. But Justice came up 'randomly' after the Coven.
The word always makes me think of my youngest daughter, with the Fuck Israel sticker on her phone. She is a stickler for justice ;-) I myself often have problems with that word because it's usually taken as judgment. I had to look up Tarot decks to see if Justice and Judgment are separate cards, which they are.
The philanthropath in the classic deck is holding the scales of justice, remember. He's deciding who is worthy to receive the pennies he distributes after he's stolen the means of survival from the Goddess cultures. Usually 'justice' is being meted out by those who are immune from it, yes?
I'm looking to unfurl the triple negatives in 'no denying', 'however' (which usually means a contrary thought) and 'Justice is not Judgment.' I can't figure out whether you agree with my statement or are saying that Justice IS Judgment.
I was thinking that my next 'feminine' post will be on Love as a hex word, having come to mean judgment of who is worthy of our affections. Love in its true sense is a passive state of non-judgment. It's neutral, not positive or negative. A mother doesn't decide between her children who deserves love and who deserves punishment. That's not the way mothers think.
So the first step in Justice is the same as in Forgiveness--taking away the ability to cause further harm. That's a kindness to the perpetrators as well as the victims. First, end the power of the usurpers to take our homes and labor. Once we've taken power over ourselves back, let Nature take her course.
Thanks for watching this, Mike!
I guess I used however to transition the sentence. My writing is often plagued by double negatives which real writers are quick to point out. I’m an engineer, not a writer. And everyone knows engineers are lousy non-technical writers. I take Justice to be neutral without prejudice and universal truth redeemed. Judgement can be untrue and wielded by anyone. Just as the card said. So I don’t view them the same. Just my definitions or is this just semantics? (See Crow this am, lol).
I learnt so much about Tarot from these readings, Tereza. I’ve never really felt the RW deck — your descriptions of the imperious (“noble”) characters within it are similar to how I perceived them. What a great idea to expand the interpretation from you personally to the times we live in. Milady, I had so much fun being part of this video with you.
It was so lovely to see you on the screen, SF!! You two beauties hanging out makes my heart smile. :)
It was the warmest illuminating fun time together! You would have felt right at home with us. ☀️
Zero doubts in my mind. I have a feeling that a day like that could be in our future. :)
I started to write a comment and then got pulled away and lost the whole damn novel long paragraph. Sheesh. Probably just as well. Who want to hear me ramble on and on.
The gist of it was that this was quite the interpretation, the goddess would be proud. Divinity and devil are related? Eve and evil are related? Ugh, it’s exhausting. Why can’t we see the god inside each and everyone of us without having inferiority or superiority weaved into our relationships?
I hope your daughters are having a grand adventure! How cool is that?!? Greece! Be still my heart!