All Text, Music, and Illustrations, including Paintings, Photographs, and 3D models, Copyright © 2022 by Jim Robbins.
THE LORD OF RUIN
As Nathan was riding through the realm, he encountered the body of a man with ten swords in his back. The dead man resembled a knight that Nathan had once known years ago, but Nathan couldn't be sure of the man's identity. Nathan wondered if the man had died in an ambush or during a robbery or during a fight to save someone. The dead man's fingers were curled in blessing as if he had died for justice or truth or some other noble cause. Nathan felt bitter about so many people ganging up against one man because it just didn't seem fair, and for a moment, Nathan felt afraid that, as a knight, he too would find himself in a losing battle where he was outnumbered. As Nathan rode away, he shuddered to think what the dead man could have possibly done to deserve such a fate.
As Nathan rode near a stream, he came upon the Queen of Swords. Nathan dismounted from his steed and bowed. "How may I serve thee, my Queen?"
The Queen smiled. "You seem distressed, my devoted knight."
Nathan responded, "Yes, your Majesty, I just saw a man with ten swords in his back. He resembled a knight I used to know."
"That is tragic," the Queen responded. "Perhaps I knew the man."
"I believe his attackers had either carefully planned it or had acted as a mob to ruin him."
Still balancing her sword straight up and down, the Queen sadly nodded her head. "I have heard of this happening recently to our knights who are valiantly protecting the realm. Often people will band together to support some falsehood and destroy the life of someone fighting for a just and noble order. You must be careful, for many people, even from a very young age, feel terribly vulnerable when they have negative experiences such as trauma, abuse, betrayal, abandonment, poverty, and loss, which leads to a deep sense of insecurity, so they band together and form a group mind that might be beneficial to them but also horribly destructive. I am convinced that nearly half the population would follow a con man who promises to save them because so many people need someone to alleviate the feelings of vulnerability. As a knight, you must be on your guard and learn to recognize this vulnerability, for people will sometimes act like a pack of wolves to kill even someone who is working for their highest good.
"As a knight, you must live in your higher self and remain balanced emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. You must release your own feelings of vulnerability and fully experience the divine powers of harmony of the Source of all Creation. That way you can more easily recognize when and why people as a group are becoming unbalanced, for people, due to their sense of vulnerability, can all too quickly turn into a mob with one aim only: to ruin or destroy others for the purpose of protecting or promoting their own interests or their status in society. This is sad, indeed, my dear knight, for sometimes a person might be working for justice or truth to protect this realm and our beloved earth and be ruined or killed by people who don't want justice or truth. Some people cannot tolerate another person doing the right thing because they feel that it is a threat to their power or status or security."
"I will be extremely careful and follow thy sage advice, my queen, so that I may serve thee effectively and with honor." Nathan bowed, then mounted his horse and rode to a secluded part of the forest, where he created a make-shift altar.
The holy man in the castle had shown Nathan how to create a positive living image, using the Ten of Swords as an example of how to transform a negative situation or energy into a positive one. The holy man had confided that the Ten of Swords is considered by many to be the worst card in the deck, and that he would not want to create a living image of the card's central figure. The way to overcome this problem, he said, is to find a living image in one of the modifying cards associated with the Tree of Life, in this case The Sun (the Sun) or The Lovers (Gemini). For this ritual, the holy man used the figure of the child on the white horse, the central figure of The Sun, because in the Ten of Swords, the Sun peeks through the clouds, suggesting that the higher self reveals itself sometimes during the most horrible betrayals and tragedies. The exuberant child on the white horse suggests a sense of renewal or rebirth, and since The Sun represents a path to Hod (Splendor), the Emanation of the intellect, the child also suggests the awakening of the intellect as well as the awakening of the higher self (both symbolically linked to The Sun). So, the holy man said, instead of just invoking The Sun, you can also banish fears of ruin so that you are less likely to attract it, then create a living image of the child in the Tarot card The Sun.
So Nathan first chose to banish the Lord of Ruin. He started by placing the Ten of Swords in the center of his imaginary pentagram on an altar. Then, to banish the negative energies of the Lord of Ruin, he placed the foundation cards down in a banishing pentagram, beginning with the Ace of Pentacles, then laying down "Judgement," then the Ace of Wands, the Ace of Swords, the Ace of Cups and continue the motion with your finger back to the Ace of Pentacles. Then he imagined releasing all negative feelings about betrayal and ruin into the fires under the surface of the earth. (See the description in the August 26 post of The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.)
He performed the first eleven steps of the Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram. (See the description of The Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram in the September 2 post.) Then he got ready to create an artificial elemental of the child in The Sun with the Tarot Pentagram Spread. He picked up the foundation cards and laid them down in a pentagram with the tops facing south on his altar. Since Fire is an active element, he used the Active Invoking Spirit Pentagram while laying down the cards, starting in the lower right corner of the pentagram, moving to the upper left corner and continuing from there. After he placed all of the cards, he tapped each card in the direction of the Active Invoking Spirit Pentagram, making sure to tap the one in the position of Fire in the lower right corner to complete the pentagram.
Then he placed The Sun in the middle of the pentagram, saying, "The Sun," and tapped the card.
Then he drew the Active Invoking Spirit Pentagram and the spirit wheel in brilliant white above The Sun on the altar, charging the pentagram and the symbol in the usual way with the Sign of the Enterer. After that, he drew an Invoking Pentagram for Fire directly over the Active Invoking Spirit Pentagram, charging the pentagram and the symbol of Leo in the usual way.
At that point, he imagined the symbol of Leo becoming the living image of the figure of the child in the The Sun. He imagined the figure moving a few feet south of the altar and coming alive as a full-length figure on a white horse. As he visualized the living image of the Tarot card, he imagined that salamanders, brilliant points of light, flowed from the Archangel Michael and filled the living image while at the same time tiny points of fiery light emanated from his aura and filled the living image as well.
He stated, "I name you Child of The Sun."
Then he said, "Provide the light of the higher self from deep in my soul to guide me and others for the highest possible good."
Then he stated, "Perform this task and return to the element of Fire, doing no harm."
He ended by saying, "So mote it be!" He imagined for a few minutes the living image of The Sun providing the light of the higher self from the deepest aspects of his psyche.
He unexpectedly felt the light of the higher self often afterwards, and he knew that the higher self was always there, guiding him.
Don't forget: Nathan always finishes the Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram with the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram!
(All AI generated images are based on my 3D Blender renderings, paintings, or photographs.)
No comments:
Post a Comment