The Fool And the Hanged Man – Both The Same Thing

Rider-Waite Tarot. The Fool card.
Rider-Waite Tarot. The Hanged Man card.

Let’s talk today about the principle of play. What does it mean to play with life, and how do we do that? As the Dutch cultural theorist Johan Huizinga suggested, play is by no means a facile undertaking. Quite the contrary. Remember when children are playing. They have fun and are super serious at the same time. They draw the game with great gravitas into their present physical reality. There are two cards in the Tarot that have an interesting relationship to the principle of play and to each other. Some read the fool and the hanged man as one and the same figure, though, depicted in two different moments in life. When we look at the iconography of the Rider-Waite Tarot and the Tarot de Marseille, we see that their physiques indeed look similar to each other. But one is depicted as a jolly person embarking enthusiastically and recklessly on their new journey, whilst the other one is presented as a human hung with one leg on a tree, with tied hands, unable to unhook himself.

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Traveler’s Heart

Tiveden Nationalpark

My traveler’s heart is filled with joy when I move through new lands with my tent. The earth invites me on its soft and soulful grasses for a lulling night’s sleep, and the rains allow me to travel even slower. As I am on my road in the Swedish forests, with no internet and no electricity, and have found a surprising stop at a coffee shop, this post shall be a quick hello from me and my ancestors.

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Guilt and the Freedom of Forgiveness

Poppy Field

As with any emotion, guilt, is information, pointing us to an issue we need to become aware of. It’s an insight that helps us to see our wrongdoing and enables making amends. Sometimes, though, the feeling of guilt is not so easily trackable to its causation. In some cases, it may also seem irrationally disproportional to the reason that caused us to feel that way.

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Grief of the newborn

Baby’s birth

Let’s talk about the newborn’s grief. We are collectively going through major shifts, having left one big chapter behind us, and started a new one. All the desires and dreams, that lit in our chests in the later years, are ready to take form. Now, as the New has finally arrived, the shapes of our desires have space for their next stage, space to get embodied.

Change comes in waves, sure. But there are moments when the realization that the change has truly come, that we have passed the threshold for sure, is fiercely obvious, at once. We’ve made it. It seemed as if the nine months of gestation would never end. But here we are. A quiver of relief washes over the body, and then a cry follows. The tears won’t end, the mouth is widely open, wrinkles encircle the face. Like a newborn baby at its first cry.

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Pluto. Oh, no! Not that again.

Pluto. Photo by NASA

Oh no, it’s that time again. A highlighted Pluto phase, activated by the celestial movements in the heavens. On our recent eclipsing new moon, on the 30 April, Pluto was stationary, getting ready to turn retrograde. In my natal chart, the new moon placement additionally hit an exact opposition to my natal Pluto. Nooo! Drowning noises. This post will be a bit time-bound, and astrological. For those of you, who do experience Plutonian stuff in your lives overall, it still may be of interest.

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The Trickster Figure and the Mind as a Trickster

Goddess Isis

1. April Extra/ Special Edition – The Trickster

I was “losing my mind” this morning during the Ashtanga Yoga practice: losing track of my speedy thoughts and getting mad about my mind spinning tricks on me. Whilst ruminating about my mind’s trickery, an interesting insight hit me: There is an intrinsic and paradoxical connection between the trickster figure and the mind.

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Shibi – Ancient Bridge for the Divine

Shibianta Bridge
Shibianta Bridge
Shibi by Ana

Let’s visit the majestic Khevsuretian mountains for a moment. Khevsureti is located in the northeast mountain chains of Georgia. The Khevsuretian cosmology is richly informed through the connection of the stars and the earth. The stars were seen as the origins of life on earth. We can read the cosmology through the symbol depictions on old stones and housings, also through mythology, rites, and customs that survived throughout time.

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