More Spring Scenes in the Park

I went for my weekly walk in the Dykeman Spring Nature Park this morning. Despite the fact that it was chilly and overcast, Spring is definitely marching along in the park. Lots of blooming trees and other flowers, lots of birds, and even some deer up on the meadow. Here are the photos that survived quality control.

Heal-all growing along the Dykeman Walking Trail

Crab Apple blossoms along the trail

A Red-winged Blackbird looking out over the wetland

A Belted Kingfisher by the main duck pond

Whitetail Deer bounding across the meadow

The Wild Mustard is blooming up on the meadow

© 2020 by A. Roy Hilbinger

The Shadow

I featured this card a couple of years ago as part of the Theme Thursday challenge, but I figured I'd repeat it today as part of the ongoing Tarot series.

The traditional #15 Major Trump card is The Devil; I renamed it after the Jungian archetype The Shadow because the two basically mean the same thing. The shadow represents the repressed weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts lurking in the unconscious mind, the part of ourselves we're reluctant to show, and which we tend to project onto people we don't like. It's almost literally the "shadow" of the persona, the face we show the public. As a culture, we've conveniently projected those parts of human nature that we don't like onto the mythological antithesis of the deity, hence the figure of the Devil, Satan, Ahriman, devils, jinn, etc. He's a convenient scapegoat for avoiding dealing with our own shortcomings.

The interesting thing about the shadow is that Jung stresses the point that it's in the shadow because these are things we repress rather than integrate into the personality. Much of Jungian psychology is concerned with integrating those repressed instincts, compulsions, impulses into a healthy persona. Jung theorized that the repression itself is what makes these energies "evil", and that free from repression they become something positive: aggression becomes optimism, repressed sexuality becomes relationship, violent anger becomes passionate advocacy.

In the end The Shadow (both the archetype and the card) represents transformative energies rather than evil or danger. True, transformation can involve a certain amount of danger, but in the end the transformative energy of The Shadow is more challenge than threat. As you can see, The Shadow can be an interesting card to turn up in a reading!

No music for this one; I just couldn't find something that matched the Jungian concept of "shadow". Oh well...

© 2011 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Destruction

Destruction, #16 in the Tarot major trumps sequence, is traditionally called The Tower. By either name, the card is all about the dramatic destruction that clears the way for new growth; it clears away the clutter and the waste - old habits, traditions, paths worn to ruts - so that there's room for new growth. It's the prairie fire that clears off the old, dead grass so that new grass and flowers can grow, or the forest fire that clears out the cluttering underbrush, or the volcano that spews hot, destructive lava that eventually becomes rich soil. It's catastrophic, it's painful, it's destructive, but the aftermath is all good. And in the world of archetypes, it's Lord Shiva.

Shiva Nataraja, Lord of the Dance, the god who dances to the song of his double-headed drum - dimi, dimi, dimi, taka nan tana keylo - which signals the dissolution of the universe so that a new one can grow in its place.

And that takes us to the music for this one, Jai Uttal's "Hara Shiva Shankara" from his 1995 recording Beggars and Saints. Jai Uttal is an American who discovered Indian music and went to India to study it. After coming back to the US and recording an album - Footprints - with jazz pioneer Don Cherry, he then formed the Pagan Love Orchestra, a conglomeration of very talented multicultural musicians. "Hara Shiva Shankara" is a traditional hymn to Shiva set to a reggae beat. This is one of my favorite songs. Enjoy!

Text and Tarot card artwork & photo © 2011 by A. Roy Hilbinger

The Star

The Star, #17 in the Tarot major trumps sequence, represents intuition, inspiration, insight, the creative spark, optimism, and hope. It's a very forward-looking card. I stuck fairly close to the traditional symbolism, although rather than having the central figure pouring water from a ewer into a body of water by starlight I had her sitting down reading and, with that look off into the distance, seeking inspiration.

The music for this one jumped up and shouted at me in its obviousness - Jiminy Cricket (actually singer Cliff Edwards) singing "When You Wish Upon a Star" from the Disney classic Pinocchio. Hmmmm... I wonder if ol' Walt was into the Tarot?

Artwork, photo, & text © 2011 by A. Roy Hilbinger

The Moon

The Moon, #18 in the Tarot major trumps sequence, is about growth and learning as a result of adversity. The traditional meaning of this card deals more with the "lunacy" aspect of the Moon - fantasy, illusion, deception. I've never liked that interpretation and decided to go with my gut in reaction to the symbol itself. I've always seen the Moon card as somehow depressing or expressing depression, and thinking about the card in my usual Jungian perspective I came to realize that the times we're the saddest, when nothing seems to be going right and we can't see a way out, are the times when we experience the most growth and increase in psychic strength.

The perfect song for this card is Paul McCartney's "Blackbird", most definitely a song about triumphing over adversity. McCartney himself said that he wrote the song while thinking about the civil rights struggles in the US, and thinking that the time was right to eliminate racial barriers.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
all your life
you were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise,
You were only waiting for this moment to arise,
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Photo, artwork, & text © 2011 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Double Duty

It's interesting how things work out. Today I had already planned to post about the Sun card, #19 in the Tarot major trumps. Oddly enough, it turns out that this week's Theme Thursday theme is "Face", and my Sun card has a nice, sunny medieval face on him. So today you get two for one!

The Sun is all about pride in accomplishment, the joy of victory or success, optimism, a "sunny" disposition... you get the picture. This has been the meaning of the card since people have been chronicling the Tarot, so I decided to go back to the oracle's past and depict it with a fairly typical medieval sun-with-a-face symbol. Heh, heh! I even have one of these as a wall hanging, a faux patina-ed bronze sun face that I bought at an art festival years ago.

And this is how you get a post on both faces and the Tarot in one neat package!

There's not one piece of music that covers both themes here, so you also get two videos this time. For the Sun theme of joy and triumph, the perfect pick for me is Van Halen's "Jump"; here's the original music video from Eddie and the boys.

For the "Face" theme, I thought I'd include the perfect Beatles song, "I've Just Seen a Face", this version from my favorite Beatles music movie, Across the Universe. This is the scene when Jude first meets Lucy. Enjoy!

Photo, artwork, & text © 2011 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Independence

In the traditional Tarot deck this card is called "Judgment" and pictures the Archangel Gabriel up in the clouds blowing his trumpet, and below on the Earth the dead are rising from their graves. In the Tarot sequence this card stands for leaving the old life behind, shedding old habits and old mistakes that hold us back, retard our growth, like a snake shedding its skin. So you can see why I picked this image. I didn't want to use the old religion-specific title, though; being based on Jungian archetypes and theory, I didn't want to tie the card to a specific culture. I chose "Independence" to refer to the state described by the symbolism.

I decided that Bob Marley's "Redemption Song", all about triumphing over the past and moving forward, was perfect for this card. And especially this version from the Playing for Change people, incorporating musicians from all over the world as well as contributions from Bob's son Stephen and old footage of Bob Marley himself performing this song. It's a great tribute to a great man and an appropriate reflection on the meaning of the card. Enjoy!

Artwork, photo, and text © 2011 by A. Roy Hilbinger

The World

I did a post about this card a couple of years ago as part of the Theme Thursday meme, but because I'm starting an actual series on my home made deck I decided it was worth doing an entirely new post.

Speaking of order... The Major Trump cards of the Tarot are traditionally numbered 1 (The Magician) through 21 (The World), with The Fool, the traveler on the path, as 0. But Micheline Stuart, one of Gurdjieff's students, proposed a reversal of that order in her book The Tarot Path to Self-Development; she shows how the flow of the symbolism actually starts with The World as birth through to The Magician as the end result, a fully developed being. That argument made a lot of sense to me, and I've followed that ordering ever since I first read the book back in the 1980s.

With that caveat attended to, onward!

The World is all about birth; the traditional versions of this card involve very womb-like symbolism. My own version incorporates my memory of the Apollo 8 Earthrise photos as fitting into that symbolism set, showing Earth emerging from behind the Moon in a very dramatic way. To quote my earlier post on this card:

I also added the Apollo 8 Earthrise shot to my symbolism because to me this emphasized even more the notion of beginnings and birth. For the first time in our history, humanity was able to view the Earth from an entirely new perspective; we had literally gotten outside ourselves and were able to see us from a distance. And what we learned was that as beautiful as our Earth was living in the midst of it, it was just as beautiful seen from a distance - a jewel suspended in the black of space.

In any event, The World card is all about beginnings, birth, and even rebirth (although that notion of rebirth is more rightly the territory of #13 Death - which in my deck is renamed Rebirth). It's about starting up, or getting things started. It's also about getting back to basics - the nature motif is also very strong in all versions of the card, and the female figure in the traditional decks has often been interpreted as Mother Nature. And that makes sense, too; we always start with what Mama Gaiea gave us, and we build on that.

The music I chose for this card fits well with that symbolism, too. Although the song "Morning Has Broken" is most associated with Cat Stevens these days, after his making a hit of it in 1971 on his Teaser and the Firecat album, the song is actually a hymn in many Christian denominations. The words are a poem written by Eleanor Farjeon in 1922, and they were set to a traditional Scottish hymn originally used as a Christmas carol. The words are certainly in sync with the symbolism of The World card.

Photo, artwork, and text © 2011 by A. Roy Hilbinger

The Fool

The Tarot series continues!

The Fool card represents the individual on the journey through life. We start life innocent, guileless, vulnerable; in the same way, when we start the conscious journey to enlightenment we are equally innocent and open to influence. The rest of the Major Trump cards represent the trials and experiences the individual goes through on the journey. The Fool is neither good nor evil; he or she is open to experience and ready to learn and become and is open to influences both right or wrong. We all travel the path with eyes and arms wide open, come what may.

And of course the perfect music for this card is Lennon and McCartney's "The Fool on the Hill". If I remember my music history correctly they wrote this specifically about the Fool card. It makes sense to me!

Photo, artwork, and text © 2011 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Theme Thursday - Beginning

The Tarot Major Trumps cards can be seen as a depiction of the individual's journey through life. In this view, The Fool (number 0) is the traveller on the path, but the first step on that path - birth - is not the card numbered 1 (The Magician), but rather #21, The World. In the Tarot scheme of things, The World is where we start the journey, and we travel down the road toward the ultimate goal of the soul's development, #2 The High Priestess (in my own deck retitled Psyche) and #1 The Magician; these two cards represent the soul's mastery of both the spiritual and physical realms.

The card depicted at the top is my handmade deck's World card, designed some 20 years ago, and the card to the left is a computer graphic collage I put together 7 or 8 years ago when I got some ideas for a new deck done on the computer (still thinking about that one). Both incorporate strong birth symbolism, but I'm not departing from tradition very far in that idea. A look at The World card in both the Tarot of Marseilles deck (derived from early 15th or 16th Century woodcut designs) and the current standard Rider-Waite deck (designed by A.E. Waite and Pamela Coleman Smith and published by Rider Publishing in 1909) carry the same strong birth imagery.

I also added the Apollo 8 Earthrise shot to my symbolism because to me this emphasized even more the notion of beginnings and birth. For the first time in our history, humanity was able to view the Earth from an entirely new perspective; we had literally gotten outside ourselves and were able to see us from a distance. And what we learned was that as beautiful as our Earth was living in the midst of it, it was just as beautiful seen from a distance - a jewel suspended in the black of space.

In any event, The World card is all about beginnings, birth, and even rebirth (although that notion of rebirth is more rightly the territory of #13 Death - which in my deck is renamed Rebirth). It's about starting up, or getting things started. It's also about getting back to basics - the nature motif is also very strong in all versions of the card, and the female figure in the traditional decks has often been interpreted as Mother Nature. And that makes sense, too; we always start with what Mama Gaiea gave us, and we build on that. So I thought The World card would be an appropriate response to this week's "Beginning" theme.

The music I chose for this week started playing in my head as soon as I started working on this post; I was hearing John Lennon sing "(Just Like) Starting Over" the whole time I was searching for the right images and writing the text. And when I went into YouTube to find a video for the song, this charming (and bittersweet; pay attention to the ending) rendition was the first listing, and I just couldn't resist. Enjoy!

Photos & text © 2009 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Theme Thursday - Shadow

This Shadow theme this week brings me back to my hand-made Tarot deck. The traditional #15 Major Trump card is The Devil; I renamed it after the Jungian archetype The Shadow because the two basically mean the same thing. The shadow represents the repressed weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts lurking in the unconscious mind, the part of ourselves we're reluctant to show, and which we tend to project onto people we don't like. It's almost literally the "shadow" of the persona, the face we show the public. As a culture, we've conveniently projected those parts of human nature that we don't like onto the mythological antithesis of the deity, hence the figure of the Devil, Satan, Ahriman, devils, jinn, etc. He's a convenient scapegoat for avoiding dealing with our own shortcomings.

The interesting thing about the shadow is that Jung stresses the point that it's in the shadow because these are things we repress rather than integrate into the personality. Much of Jungian psychology is concerned with integrating those repressed instincts, compulsions, impulses into a healthy persona. Jung theorized that the repression itself is what makes these energies "evil", and that free from repression they become something positive: aggression becomes optimism, repressed sexuality becomes relationship, violent anger becomes passionate advocacy.

In the end The Shadow (both the archetype and the card) represents transformative energies rather than evil or danger. True, transformation can involve a certain amount of danger, but in the end the transformative energy of The Shadow is more challenge than threat. As you can see, The Shadow can be an interesting card to turn up in a reading!

Finding a music video this week was interesting. I fed "shadow" into YouTube's search engine, and the results were fascinating. There were some classic results, including D.L. Byron's "Shadows of the Night" (made a hit by both Pat Benatar and Rachel Sweet), the Rolling Stones' "Have You Seen Your Mother (Standing in the Shadow)", and "Shadowland" from the Broadway musical version of The Lion King. But I chose something new to me instead. I've never heard of this Finnish band, The Rasmus, but I found both the song and the video "In the Shadows" intriguing. I hope you're as intrigued as I was!

Photo & text © 2009 by A. Roy Hilbinger
And if anyone is interested, my photographic portfolio is now online.