The Submersible Dali

...In reference to the photo of Salvador Dali wearing a diving suit while sitting amongst a group of people in street clothes. Dali said this was because he explored the depths of human consciousness, but I think he was trying to get attention. And I forgive him, the crazy brilliant master painter.

This is actually about the Tarot, which also plumbs the psychic depths.

I was writing about the face cards before. The king, queen, knight, and page of each suit. The three adults fit into the three sets of star signs. Kings are the cardinal signs, Queens the fixed, and Knights are the mutable. The four elements of water, fire, air, and earth that are common to both Astrology and Tarot mean that there is a knight, queen, and king for each element.

The king of fire (suit of wands) is Aries, the ram. The queen of water (cups) is Scorpio. And my own sun sign, Gemini, is the knight of swords.

At first sight the gender roles are apparent. Queens are female and Kings are male. But the elements are also female (water and earth) and male (fire and air). So our queen of fire and our king of water are a combination of gender characteristics.

Are the knights any less confused? I don't believe so. And the pages are asexual children, with the function of heralds and messengers.

Here it is, then: One lesson I have taken from the Tarot is that gender roles are worth questioning. Characteristics like leadership or nuturing are not innate for either sex. People are more often than not a bundle of characteristics attributable to both sexes.

What is the purpose of this subversion of gender roles? The Tarot is not a dark and evil force bent on tearing society apart. No, really. Sorry to disappoint. The intent of Tarot is to advise and empower people, and here it is suggesting that one can use or discard the powers of earth, fire, water, and air without regard to gender.

Consider yourself corrupted and subverted, gentle reader.

78 Degrees of Wisdom

Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

The title of the book on Tarot by Rachel Pollack.

What does one do with the Tarot? The start is exploring and learning. Decks of Tarot often come with the little white book or LWB. I've been to university, so I can research passably. The LWB can be a 'how to read Tarot' introduction. But I like to get a number of sources, like a diligent student, and choose which ones I want to use.

The better guides are written as seperate books from the decks, not card-sized and resembling the manual for a home appliance. The best LWBs are practical and informative, with a reference to the expanded version of itself, available seperately.

Young Rachel pops up repeatedly in reference lists. I've found her influence without acknowledgment as well.

I get the impression that the Tarot is an extensive garden. Diverse, even contradictory, but unflaggingly fertile. One theme is numbers. In the four suits are 14 cards, 4 'faces' and 10 'pips'. The faces are the page, knight, queen, and king. The pips show from 1 to 10 of the suit.

The 10 pip cards make 3 sets of 3 plus the 10th card. Each set of three can be seen as a cycle, with the larger cycle of 9. The 10th card is outside the cycles, which can mean the start of a new cycle or the ending of the present one.

For example, the 10 of swords has a figure lying face down with 10 swords through the body. In the parlance of my country, the bloke is Cactus. Cactus Fucktus. Can't see a bandaid and cuppa tea putting this right. In the background is a sunset. The sense of finality is relieved by the implication that there will be a sunrise.