Janus the Spirit of Doorways: Tarot Visioning on Quest 2016

Living the Quest in meditation, I crouch on a cool stone floor, facing a leaden wall. I pull my brown cloak closer around my shoulders and listen for a long moment from inside this familiar, tense, and hyper vigilant stance.

I take a deep breath and unfurl to stand tall. As I do so, my cloak morphs from its dark brown color to a vibrant red. I reach behind me to pull closed the sheer, white curtain of the past so like the net of perception the High Priestess lets ripple out from her lap.

Simultaneously, the leaden wall sinks down into the floor with a gentle click and a pleasant heat floods the stone floor to warm my bare soles. I step over the former threshold of wall to find I’m standing in the very middle of a circle of doors, each painted in order of rainbow spectrum. I spin slowly, “listening” again, this time, for the tone of each color–which calls the most? There’s time enough to explore each.

On Quest 2016, this week we were asked to imagine ourselves as part of a Creative Pack, and invited to do a bit of future casting by way of imagining back on the lived year. My favorite aspect of the Pack inquiry asked us to consider: what key attitudes and principles guided us as we formed, grew, or changed Packs?

As January comes to a close and metaphors of Janus the spirit of doorways visits me at my sketchbook, I pull three cards to help stay close to my goals in relation to the Pack I run with and will run with in 2016. By Pack I mean creative collaborators of spirit, heart, and mind as well as those I will work to serve with poetry, art, and Tarot inquiry in 2016.

I pulled three cards as keys to looking back on how I stayed true to some key principles that matter most to me at present: Taking greater risks with joy, maintaining a harmonious Mobius of exchange, and staying heart connected no matter the situation at hand.

Ten of Cups as Key to Taking Greater Risks

Here we see a happy family, hearts overflowing with joy in the Rider Waite Smith deck, or an image of overflowing cups titled Satiety (Thoth). When my family is anchored and thriving, I am better able to take risks in my work. With young children and teenagers in the wings at home, I need ever to balance their thriving with mine.

Journaling question for the Ten of cups:

In what way can I bring Ten of Cups joy into my family’s weekly schedule? In which settings are we as a family celebratory?

 Eight of Wands as Key to Maintaining a Harmonious Mobius of Exchange

Called Swiftness in the Thoth deck, the Eight of Wands features red, passionate energy lines of new ideas and inspiration jagging out from the diamond mind. Astrologically, Mercury in Sagittarius bodes well for a plethora of ideas and the means to express them in a far-reaching manner (as if shot from the blessed bow of Centaurs on high). In the Rider Waite Smith, we see budding wands traveling across the land at great speed; this image too bodes well for collaborating with others, studying new ideas, and joyful co-mingling of new concepts.

Journaling question for the Eight of Wands:

In which settings, and with which groups of individuals, am I most inspired to let go and share my ideas without censor? How can I best translate the best of those ideas into not only my own projects, but also joy- producing collaborations?

Two of Swords as Key to Staying Heart Connected

In the Thoth deck, this card is called Peace. Vying anxieties have been laid to rest and the mind stilled during temporary retreat. When I look at the Rider Waite Smith deck with its blindfolded woman sitting with her back to the sea, I have the urge of course, as an ocean lover, to tell her to take off the blindfold and pay attention to the waves. Pretending they aren’t there won’t stop those rogue waves from coming to wet the hem of her skirt or upend her into the sea (though I do love a good, conscious swim in the salt waters of the ocean). There remains a need, likely, given the Eight of Wands exchange of ideas, to take time out from the Pack to stay grounded through the daily practice of meditation.

Journaling question for the Two of Swords:

What do I tend to ignore when I work within a group (or Pack)? How do I maintain my inner peace during the sharing of many minds? How can I stay evenly connected with my heart’s goals and emotions (neither ignoring them nor being swept out to sea by them) as creative ideas are explored and shared within a group?

Today’s in-process drawing:

I guess you could call today’s drawing the eye (I) standing in the center of the Door Flower in honor of Janus. I welcome the opening of new doors this year on Quest.

Photo Credits:

Top and bottom photos are by my poetry movie collaborator Robyn Beattie.