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Ch.20: Through the Ring of Fire |
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About this entry: I incorporate my skills as an amateur Tarot Card reader in an attempt to find what I'm truely seeking. The spread used here is called The Celtic Cross. For more info. on Tarot, check out Tarot Plain and Simple by: Anthony Lewis.
Following the magician's advice, I turned my sights due west, following the setting sun. I travelled for four days and nights without meeting anyone, grabbing food and sleep where I could in the endless sea of trees. The Spartan Cloak, and new information, took top priority over my personal health.
On the fourth night of my travels, a monstrous storm hit. Someone had "pulled the plug on the big bathtub in the sky" and thunder rumbled all around. I pulled my already soaking cloak around me as I squinted in an attempt to see where I was going. I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face, so it was no wonder that I missed my footing and fell straight down from a cliff. I couldn't see below me but from what I had seen the last time I had checked my map, nothing but solid ground lay below me. 'Not even a rock to cushion my fall,' I thought as I blacked out, contemplating my seemingly imminent demise. 'How cruel this world is. I bet she won't even miss me.'
I had been struggling to remember the friend I had taken my hyadis from men for during my journey. Small memories came, the day we had met, her eighth break-up with a boy and how her face had looked, fragments of times we had spent together talking about stuff. A body, a face, a voice, but no name to go with them. I had been searching my brain to find it when I had tumbled off the cliff. (Shows you how coordinated I am, doesn't it? gonk )
I regained consciousness inside a humble house. 'This isn't what I expected limbo to look like. (Or to feel like for that matter. My head hurt for some reason, not to mention my clogged sinuses made it feel like a stuffed cabbage.) I must be dead and gone already, and this is a house where I must watch over the inhabitants for 300 years before I gain my immortal soul.' [Note: That's from Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid. Thank you very much.]
"You're still alive," said a voice somewhere near the place I was sitting. "Don't fret my dear. You just hit your head and were out for a day or so, and you've caught a head-cold to boot."
(A head cold? A concussion? I had expected far worse than this. Obviously some higher power was watching over me. I would never have survived a fall like that on my own.)
"I found you on my way home from the village. You were lying flat on your back in the pouring rain, leaves falling from the cliff a hundred feet above you. I brought you to my house to keep you warm and the rest is history."
I stood up and almost fell backwards. "I'd be careful if I were you," the woman at the fireside said. "You're still very weak. Plus, the concussion you got probably messed up your sense of balance."
I took small steps towards the empty fireplace and sat down on the floor in front of her. "If I'm not dead, would you kindly tell me where I am, good mother?" I asked her. (She looked too old to be a maiden, but too young to be a crone. I addressed her with what I thought was the appropriate title.) "You said something about a village earlier."
She ran a hand through her hair, which was the color of wheat, and put my hands in her lap. "Yes. My house is not more than 7 miles from Sunset Town. You wish to go there, am I right?"
She was. Sunset Town was the western most town I had seen on my map. Famed for being the warmest, most well-lit town in all of Gaia, I thought my best bet at ending my search would be there. The sun stayed out for the longest in Winter, even though it was temperate all year round. I nodded in answer to her question.
"Come sit here and tell me about your adventures. You have just gone through an emotionally trying time and wanted to get away from your problems by travelling. My dear, running away from our problems will not solve them; given time, they will grow and you will end up in more trouble than when you started."
"What can I do?" I inquired, gazing up into her blue eyes. "I don't even know what I'm searching for, let alone where to search for it. And what's more, I can't even remember who I set out on this quest for in the first place. Help a troubled sister, please?"
"Of course."
She stood up and walked over to a table, her multi-colored skirts swishing as she went. She indicated a chair and I came over, slowly as not to make me dizzy again, and sat down. I looked at a deck of cards on the table. "You're a Tarot reader," I exclaimed. (I should know. I was one myself in my spare time.)
The woman didn't say anything. She only looked at the cards and then at me. I picked up the deck and began shuffling. For a few minutes, the only sound was our quiet breathing. (I cleared my mind easily for the house was quiet and I felt safe here, even with a Tarot reader that I had never met before.) I stopped when I felt ready and asked my question: "Will I ever see my friend again?"
The Tarot reader took the deck from my hands and took out the Page of Swords, one of the two Court cards that I felt represented me the most as a person. (The other is the Page of Cups, which would fit since I'm a water sign, Pisces, a sea-witch, and a young woman.) "So, you are a knowledge seeker with a strong will," she said. "You admire fair judgement, are good at keeping secrets, and adapt well to difficult situations." [Note: Court Cards represent people influencing a person's life.]
She drew the top card from the deck and laid it face up on the left hand corner. "This covers you." (The 10 of Wands, reversed. Perhaps it was an indicator that I had been searching for my missing friend for a long time with no fruit to show for my labors. Also, it hinted that I felt I had been deceived and betrayed by this friend, and did I feel a hint of envy creeping up inside me.)
She laid the next card sideways across the 10 of Wands. "This crosses you, for better or worse." (The 6 of Pentacles. [Note: The card in the cross position is usually read in it's upright position.] This card was a bit paradoxical to the first since it indicated enjoying the fruits of my labor. Someone could have given, or would give, me a gift. Then again, wasn't the knowledge I was receiving here gift enough?)
The Tarot reader drew the third card and lay it in the South position of the cross. "This is beneath you." (The Ace of Pentacles, reversed. I had recently lost this friend to a lover I wasn't ready to let go of. I must have had strong feelings of discontent and possessiveness towards the lover if this card showed up in the "past situations affecting the present" position.)
The fourth card she placed in the West Position. "This is behind you." (The King of Pentacles, upright. This king represented a firm-minded person. It could mean I was making steady, shrewd progress toward my goal and that my hard work, perserverance, and patience would pay off soon, but it also could have represented Jareth, who just so happened to be a king, a key figure in my recent past.)
The fifth card was placed in the North Position. "This crowns you." (XVI, The Tower, upright. A card from the Major Aracana in the "possible solution" position could mean that I would change the situation I was in, and considering it was the Tower, it meant sudden dramatic change had occurred recently or would occur soon. 'It could refer to Erik's bloodline,' I thought. 'That certainly threw me for a loop when I found out about that.')
The sixth card was placed in the East Position. "This lies before you." (XVIII, The Moon, upright. Another Major Arcana, and this one was important. The Moon ruled the oceans, my home, and represented the female archetype, so I knew I had better pay attention to it. It summed up the cards so far, capturing all of the depression, illusion, mystery, confusion, dreams, and betrayal I had felt and seen in the past few weeks. Seeing this card in the "near future" position warned that there would be more feelings like this to come and that I would be wise to pay attention to my intuition as well as the people around me.)
The last four cards were placed in a straight line to the right of the cross. The Tarot reader turned them over, starting on the bottom and working her way to the top. "This is your Self," she said, indicating the card on the bottom. (The Queen of Wands, upright.) "You must really care about your friend if you are trying to find her on your own. I admire your generosity, independance, and courage. These qualities will bring you what you desire."
Me? Courageous? Then again, the lover who had rejected me was gifted with extraordinary powers (He was the Phantom of Modern Times after all.), so maybe this queen's message wasn't too far off. "This is your environment and those around you," she said, picking up the first card from the bottom. (The 8 of Wands, reversed. Upright, this card usually represented a speedy journey towards ones desires. Reversed, it meant stagnation and immobility. Jareth's delayed news about Lelouch's past had put extra thoughts on my mind; even though he had supposedly come clean, I still felt like I wasn't going anywhere.)
She turned over the first card from the top next. "This is your hopes, fears and expectations." (The Ace of Cups, reversed. A reversed card in the prenultimate position exposed the fears of the person getting a reading. Upright, the Ace of Cups meant the start of a new emotional relationship or happy emotions. Reversed, it meant unhappiness and relationship problems. I was afraid that I would never see my friend again, but also that I would never fall in love with someone who loved me back; what was worse was that I knew Flotsam loved me but I was afraid that starting a romantic relationship with him would only end in tradgedy.)
Bracing myself for the worst, she turned over the tenth and final card. "This is what is to come." (The 8 of Pentacles, reversed. Not the 9 of Swords, sometimes called "The Nightmare Card", that I had expected, but it still suggested something I didn't like. The card said that I was too impatient to see the results I wanted, that I was not using my powers to their full potential. I would have to work harder in order to get the results I wanted.)
I thanked the woman for her time. I grabbed my stuff, which she had kindly aired out after the storm, and set my sights on Sunset Town. I didn't know what lay ahead of me, but I did know that my friend was somewhere along the path. As I set off, I thought I glimpsed a barn owl circling above the cottage. It circled once more and then flew away towards the mid-morning sun. 'Thank you,' I thought. 'For everything.'
 srs diva 2011 xxl · Fri Mar 20, 2009 @ 07:59pm · 1 Comments |
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