All Text, Music, and Illustrations, including Paintings, Photographs, and 3D models, Copyright © 2022 by Jim Robbins.
LORD OF PLEASURE
As Nathan was meditating in his small room in the castle, he remembered when he first met Mr. Mellifluous in the Tarot Realm. Mr. Mellifluous could hear music in Nathan's heart and immediately made Nathan a knight. Then Mr. Mellifluous vanished into the brush, leaving Nathan to find his way alone through the wilderness to the castle in the Tarot Realm.
After Mr. Mellifluous disappeared, Nathan wandered through the pathless forest. Soon, Nathan found a bear scratching its back against a tree. The bear then climbed up the tree and knocked down a beehive. The bear suddenly noticed Nathan and began descending the tree. Nathan dashed through the forest until he came to a path. He paused for breath, hoping the bear wasn't still chasing him. Suddenly, Nathan saw a mountain lion staring at something near the path. Then the wildcat pounced and sauntered away with a squirrel in its teeth. Nathan backed away slowly, hoping the wildcat was focused entirely on its meal. Then Nathan heard the howl of wolves nearby. He galloped away in the opposite direction, away from the path, and eventually came to a clearing where he could see a castle in the distance.
After awhile, Nathan came to the front gate of the castle. As he approached, a small man was handing a golden cup with flowers to a young girl, who was overjoyed at receiving such a gift. After encountering the wild beasts in the forest, Nathan found this loving act of giving and receiving a welcome change.
As Nathan was entering the castle, the guard at the front gate stopped him. "What is your business here?" the guard inquired.
Nathan was not quite sure how to respond, so he stammered, "Mr. Mellifluous sent me to serve the King and Queen."
The guard responded, "You may enter."
As Nathan entered the castle, a page approached him and said, "I will take you to the King now. We must walk through the castle and down a long flight of stairs to the ocean."
The page escorted Nathan down the cliff to the ocean, where they found the King of Cups. Nathan bowed. "How may I serve thee, my King?"
The King stared at Nathan. "You must be new, my devoted knight. Did Mr. Mellifluous send you?"
Nathan responded, "Yes, your Majesty."
"Very well," the King responded. "Ah, yes, I can hear the music in your heart. Mr. Mellifluous always exercises good judgment. We must find you a suit of armor and some pentacles and swords and cups and wands since you are going to serve the Tarot Realm. I will send for the holy man as well, for he can teach you many sacred principles."
"Thank you, your Majesty. I am always at your service. Your Highness, may I ask you a question?"
Still balancing his scepter straight up and down, the King smiled and nodded his head.
"At the front gate of the castle, I noticed a man giving a golden cup and flowers to a young girl. Are people always so loving here at the castle?"
"Occasionally scalawags and knaves and miscreants find their way into the Tarot Castle, of course, but many people here have learned to live with love and compassion. You obviously have found your way through the wilderness to get here, which only a brave knight would do alone. Many other people have somehow found their way through the wilderness and now, because of their struggles, feel compassion and reverence for other people--even if those people appear to be unlike them. They realize the importance of giving and receiving because this realm is always in flux. Profound and disruptive changes often occur. Most people here provide help because they know that one day they might need to receive help from others. Here, we emphasize respect for otherness, for the flowers and trees and even the wild beasts in the wilderness. Through harmonizing love and sacrifice, we neutralize the dark forces that make us vulnerable. We revere the sun, the source of all life in our realm, and we revere the great tapestry of life created by the sun and the Sun behind the sun, the fields upon fields of interconnected energy in our realm and throughout the cosmos. We respect all of creation and each other. To do otherwise would lead to destruction of the realm. To do otherwise would be irresponsible and insane, for everything is connected."
Nathan worked with the holy man in the castle for many weeks. One day the holy man showed Nathan how to create a positive living image with The Sun. The holy man had confided that The Sun is one of the best cards in the deck because it reveals the awakening of the mind on two levels: The intellectual level and the spiritual level. The Sun, he said, is associated with Path 30 on the Tree of Life, which connects The Foundation with Splendor, the Emanation of the intellect which is associated with Mercury. The Sun is also associated with the Emanation of Beauty, the spiritual center on the Tree of Life of harmonizing love and sacrifice.
Nathan found a card in his Tarot deck that resembled what he had witnessed in front of the castle, the Six of Cups, a card associated with The Sun in Scorpio. The holy man had told Nathan that Scorpio represents profound transformation and change. Nathan did not want to deal with that in his ritual. Instead he wanted to focus on the awakening of the mind on both the mental and spiritual levels, an awakening that leads to harmonizing love and compassion as well as the understanding of the need for sacrifice to create balance.
First, he performed the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. Then he performed the first eleven steps of the Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram. Then he got ready to create a living image of the The Sun with the Tarot Pentagram Spread.
Since The Sun is associated with Leo and Fire is an active element, he used the Active Invoking Spirit Pentagram while laying down the foundation 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, the awakening of the mind," 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 with the Sign of the Enterer.
At that point, he imagined the symbol of Leo becoming the living image of The Sun. He imagined the living image moving a few feet south of the altar and coming alive as a powerful force. As he visualized the living image of The Sun, 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, "The Sun, the awakening of the mind."
Then he said, "Great Sun, awaken my intellect and my spirit for the highest possible good of this realm."
Then he stated, "Perform this task and then return to the element of Fire, doing no harm." He ended by exclaiming, "So mote it be!" Then he imagined for a few minutes the living image of The Sun engulfing him in light and awakening his mind and spirit.
He unexpectedly felt the light of The Sun often afterwards, and he sensed that his higher self was always guiding him.
Nathan finished the Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram with the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.
(All AI versions are based on my 3D Blender renderings, paintings, and photographs.)
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