All Text, Music, and Illustrations, including Paintings, Photographs, and 3D models, Copyright © 2022 by Jim Robbins.

TEN OF CUPS

Meet the Lord of Perfected Success.

Decan: Mars in 21 - 30 degrees of PiscesTree of Life Association: The Four Elements in Malkuth (Tenth Sphere)

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Mr. Mellifluous and the Lord of Perfected Success

   You are wandering through the countryside with Mr. Mellifluous and come upon a joyful family. The parents embrace affectionately and gesture toward a rainbow with ten golden cups while their children dance. Oddly, the rainbow contains only the three primary colors. Their home, within its natural setting, appears modest. Their success seems less related to wealth and more related to happiness.
   Before Mr. Mellifluous even asks the question, you know the answer. The influences are not at all what you expected. You feel a great sense of purity as well as harmony with the natural world. An overpowering freshness emanates from the stream and the forest and the family itself.

The Moon: Pisces

   Suddenly you are next to the stream. A crayfish is crawling onto the land. A dog and a jackal are howling at the moon, which is partially eclipsing the sun. Suddenly the Moon speaks, “The lightning bolt of Mars has totally cleansed the couple who fell from of the tower. The Fire of Mars has burned away all negative thoughts and emotions to establish good health again on all levels. No illnesses remain, either psychologically or physically.

The Tower: Mars

   “This cleansing leaves a freshness on all levels of the psyche, the spirit, the intellect, the emotions, and the body. Fire penetrates deep into the subconscious mind to purify even the instincts, for you are related through evolution with all creatures, no matter how strange, plants and reptiles and animals.
   “When your psyche is purified, you are pulled to me, the Moon, because I reflect the light of the Source, and through me, you can know that light, both in yourself and in the world.”

Queen of Swords
with Claire

 

   Claire is flying above a stream when she sees someone familiar far below, so she decides to find out who it might be. When she lands next to the Queen of Swords, she remembers why the Queen looks so familiar. Claire curtseys. "How do you do, your majesty?"

   "Quite well, thank you! How are you, dear child?"

   "Very well, thank you, your highness. I know this might sound a little strange, your majesty, but I once imagined that I was a queen just like you!"

   The Queen chuckles, "Did you now? How did that go for you?"

   "It was kind of fun for awhile, but then I realized I wasn't really ready to be a queen."

   "Why is that?" the Queen inquired.

   "I decided it was probably a bit too much of a responsibility for someone my age...."

   The Queen laughed. "Very wise, my child."

   "What do you need to know to be a good queen?" Claire asked politely.

   "A great question for any child who wishes to be queen someday! Balance is the key, my dear."

   "What does that mean for you as a queen, your majesty?" 

   "You must purify your heart and mind so that your instincts and desires do not control you. So many leaders are really like children, selfish, greedy, ravenous for power, prideful, unable to care about anything but satisfying their own desires. You must understand that as the queen of your own domain, you have awesome power, which can result in great harm for you and your entire kingdom if you make choices based on unbalanced desires or uncontrolled instincts. 

   "If you purify your heart and mind, releasing all negativity from past suffering, you can rise above negative influences and have intuitive insights about the true intentions of others. You will find very few people are genuinely working for the highest good of others, my child, which can make your role as queen quite challenging.

   "As a queen, you must know your connection to the community of all life so that you can use your power for the highest good of your kingdom. When you purify your heart and mind and know how to neutralize negative influences, you eventually create balance within yourself. When you create harmony in yourself, you desire to create harmony in the world around you. Almost magically, you feel the harmony and divinity of all life and the underlying unity of all consciousness, which naturally motivates you to strive for harmony and abundance for your kingdom, not just for yourself, for everything is connected.

   "Harmony within yourself leads to acceptance and compassion for all life. Only when you know the harmony of creation and establish balance within yourself can you maintain balance within your kingdom, my child. Now, please, go enjoy the festivities and have some fun!"

   Claire bowed. "Yes, your majesty. Thank you, your majesty. I will!" she replied. Then she flew off to join the dance below.

    

   

    

   Go on a different adventure with Mr. Mellifluous.

 All Text, Music, and Illustrations, including Paintings, Photographs, and 3D models, Copyright © 2022 by Jim Robbins.

The Ace of Swords:

The Root of the Element of Air

THE ACE OF SWORDS

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   You stop to gaze at a hand holding a sword, topped by a crown, floating in air above a mountainside. Mr. Mellifluous chimes out, "The sword represents the awesome power of the conscious mind, which gradually becomes so aware of the nature of existence that it ultimately aligns itself with the underlying Universal consciousness. That is one reason why the element of Air has a dual significance, representing the discerning intellect as well as the spirit, which is associated with breath, the basis of life.

   "The element of Air on one level represents the flow in the conscious mind of thoughts and emotions and desires. Thought-forms imbued with emotion or desire follow one another in ceaseless currents, unless one makes a conscious effort to still the flow. These thought-forms can manifest as profound harmony or result in great horror for entire ethnicities and races, as we have seen throughout human history.

   "Even the notion of 'dropping into the void' in meditation is a thought-form, but if one stills the conscious mind long enough, the mind can perceive the unity of all consciousness. 

   "Moreover, other thought-forms--subconscious material including archetypal symbols--sometimes surface. The level of mind associated with the element of Water receives spiritual impulses and embodies them with archetypal form. Archetypal symbols appear in vision during meditation without desire attached to them, yet they can ripple out into one’s life through the astral plane into the physical realm and take on great emotional significance, revealing the interconnectedness of the different planes. 

   "Air, also associated with breath, the essence of life, symbolizes spirit in many traditions. Of course, everything is spirit manifested in one form or another, but Air represents the active, conscious currents of spirit, which we associate with awareness and intellect.
   "Emotions, sometimes negative, and desires, sometimes extremely inappropriate, well up from the subconscious depths into consciousness, sometimes causing discord, and Swords, the suit of the Air element, reflects the conflict, which can tear through the thin fabric of rationality. Yet a sword can also swiftly cut through illusions, as well as through difficult problems, and so Air is associated with the critical intellect.
   "A Hermetic axiom is 'Everything is mental energy,' so, in a sense, everything is an aspect of mind, including perceptions of the physical world, yet we perceive energy fields as separate objects because as a matter of survival from an early age we are trained to do so, but the fields that we label as objects are on a basic level connected with all the other fields of energy. Language, as a symbolic system, enables us, indeed requires us, to perceive fields of energy as separate from each other, so the cup is separate from the table, and the table from the floor, and the floor from the rest of the house, and the house from the rest of the cosmos. Because of this ability to separate and classify and analyze, the human intellect has been able to manipulate the environment to an amazingly high degree.
   "As a species, humans tend to agree that particular fields of energy have specific meanings. The very moment that a field of energy 'means something' is the moment it becomes separate from other fields of energy, which can have the effect of separating the mind from the underlying unity of consciousness. The energy field holding the coffee becomes identified as a general type of object known as a cup. Then, other energy fields can be classified as containing a specific purpose. 

   "People, in a sense, have developed the tendency to 'collapse' the energies within the perceptible spectrum of energy into a collective reality with  generally accepted meanings.
   "What you perceive and what is really 'out there' is possibly quite different. Imagine, for a moment, gazing at a knife on a table. For you to perceive the knife, light waves, some of which become absorbed and some of which are scattered, must hit it. Some of these light waves cause chemical changes in your retina, which trigger cells in your optic nerve, which relay patterns of electrical charges into your brain, and there, the nerve messages are translated into an image of a knife on a table. Brain cells retain the image to create a memory that you can draw upon to compare to other energy fields.  Words, which by themselves are simply arbitrary sounds or scrawls on paper, provide a meaning that the culture agrees upon. This tendency to create meaning continues as you apply abstract concepts to the image. The knife resembles the sword that symbolizes the intellect.
   "Between what we perceive and how the brain transforms perception is an infinitesimal gap that quickly deepens into an abyss if you stop relying on your symbolic associations. On one level, this is an aspect of an experience related to Daath, the invisible sphere on the Tree of Life between the separate conscious mind and the experience of mystical unity. The moment that the mind no longer perceives a separation between energy fields is a moment when symbols no longer dominate the mind. A sense of nothingness or emptiness underlying action and form can accompany such a moment, but it can also be a moment filled with an overwhelming sense of the unity of all creation. This sense is slightly shocking to the psyche that is familiar mainly with the world of forms and symbols and so it rarely lasts long unless the mind, through spiritual practices, is able to extend it the experience of unity.
   “'The mind slays reality, so one must slay the slayer' is an old adage, and the element of Air in one sense is the sword that slays the sense of unity underlying existence. Conversely, it is also the weapon that enables the mind to recognize the underlying unity of consciousness while also establishing and maintaining a reality that lends itself to survival in the physical dimension. Recognizing the 'emptiness' of action and form and their symbolic associations is also a spiritual aspect of Air, an element that is, after all, invisible, without form.
   "Since the subtle natural forces that organize the cosmos are made of 'mind stuff,' and since our souls are also invisible but made of the same mind stuff, shamans and initiates throughout the ages have used a common method passed down through the mystery traditions that enables them to connect with subtle intelligences. Because of this astral mind stuff, humans are able to create a special kind of being, called an elemental, by fashioning in the imagination a form suitable for the normally free-flowing force to ensoul. Once a connection is made, the elemental can perform certain tasks within its limited nature for the shaman or magician. Another special type of elemental containing great power is known as a God or Archangel. These awesome intelligences will sometimes manifest within the mind in an appropriate astral form, pouring their force into the psyches of people and providing spiritual assistance, by neutralizing dark forces to create balance, for instance. That is why a Christ figure can inspire such passionate devotion for millions of people over thousands of years. The shaman, magician, or priest goes about his work by constructing a symbolic astral image and reaches out to the subtle intelligence through devotion, in prayer or sacrifice or ceremony, until the intelligence responds favorably with its presence or its "ray" of energy. Great healing and purification and exaltation of consciousness is possible through this connection.

   "The intellect can hold two seemingly contradictory ideas about the mind: the imperative to treat manifested objects and life-forms as separate in order to survive as well as the underlying unity of consciousness--an understanding that is one basis of faith."

Go on a different adventure with Mr. Mellifluous.

All Text, Music, and Illustrations, including Paintings, Photographs, and 3D models, Copyright © 2022 by Jim Robbins.

TWO OF SWORDS

Meet the Lord of Peace Restored.

Decan: Moon in 1 - 10 degrees of LibraTree of Life Association: Zodiac in Chokmah (Second Sphere)

Mr. Mellifluous and the Lord of Peace Restored

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   A blind-folded woman sits on a white bench near a calm sea. Arms crossed, holding a long sword in each hand, the person is dressed in a pure white robe. The blind-fold is also white. The person on the bench resembles the figure of Justice who holds a sword straight up in one hand and scales in the other.

Justice: Libra

   Suddenly you are once again in front of the queen who holds the scales. She speaks, “White combines all of the colors, so it is a symbol of both unity and purity. In this state, the second Emanation of the Source from the Great Unmanifest, the One has not yet become the Many. Here the most primal form of consciousness handles great power in equilibrium, and here we see a figure all in white, anonymous, on a simple bench, not a throne.

The High Priestess: The Moon

   “Justice is not blind-folded. True Justice sees all. However, the spirit of balance 'above' the Abyss experiences unity without also being immersed in manifested creation in all of its diversity. Hence, the blindfold. Instead, consciousness within the second Emanation on the great Tree of Life harmonizes powerful forces even within the first flux of creation, revealed by water and the moon.”

   Mr. Mellifluous looks at you. "So, what do you see?" he asks.

   "I guess I see this on a more personal level. Having experienced a lot of change in my life, I can identify with her. I understand the kind of inner discipline and strength it takes to deal with all the flux and uncertainty in the world. She personifies a type of archetypal energy on the Tree of Life, and each person embodies the Tree, so this ability is at the core of each person's being--and we can use it beneficially as long as we can access it. And I speak from experience: Often, we must go deep into ourselves, usually with our eyes closed in meditation, to find the strength within ourselves to create and maintain our own inner balance." 

King of Wands

   As Claire glided over the desert, she noticed a king on his throne far below and winged down toward him. Since he seemed unoccupied, Claire approached him.

   "Greetings, your majesty, how are you?"

   "I am well, my child, how are you?"

   "Very well, thank you. I was just wondering why the snake biting its own tail is important here in your kingdom."

   "The snake forms a circle representing eternity. As you are no doubt aware, the snake sheds its skin periodically, which is an appropriate symbol for regeneration within the cycles of life throughout eternity."

   "Why, that is wonderful! Thank you, your majesty. You know, not long ago I met a Knight who also held a wand, like you. He mentioned that the wand gave him the power of passionate spiritual will, or something like that...."

   "So you have met the Knight of Wands. Has he found the pyramids in the desert yet?"

   "Yes, your majesty, that is actually where I met him. I was wondering, your majesty, if I could have a wand too? It contains great power, doesn't it?"

   "My dear child, you already have the power of the wand within you. Remember, symbols, such as the wand, represent powers and energies within you. Indeed, the wand reveals the passion and will to attain the greatest heights, higher than the intellect or the emotions can ever take you. The wand contains a purifying power that burns away whatever gets in the way of greater understanding and harmony and balance. Without the power of Fire, you will have great difficulty attaining the spiritual heights. You need to find that power within yourself to reach your highest good and the highest good of others."

Go on a different adventure with Mr. Mellifluous.

   

   

 All Text, Music, and Illustrations, including Paintings, Photographs, and 3D models, Copyright © 2022 by Jim Robbins.

THREE OF SWORDS

Meet the Lord of Sorrow.

Decan: Saturn in 11 - 20 degrees of LibraTree of Life Association: Saturn in Binah (Third Sphere)

Mr. Mellifluous and the Lord of Sorrow.

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   You and Mr. Mellifluous are suddenly flying through the air, and you encounter a strange sight: A heart with three swords through it floats in the clouds as rain softly falls around it. Oddly, the heart is not bleeding. It seems that you are witnessing a symbol from some ancient dream.

Justice: Libra

   “Think of the woman with the sword and the scales,” Mr. Mellifluous advises. “Perhaps she can help you understand what we are seeing.”
   Suddenly you are once again in front of the crowned woman on her throne.
   She states, “Suffering has existed from the very beginning because all things within manifestation transform utterly in order to allow further growth and creation, but there is always balance within the cycles of birth, death, and regeneration. All forms change but the spirit progresses on its path. Without sorrow, there could be no dance, no joy, no love.

The World: Saturn

   “The God Saturn on a primal level restricts free-flowing force in form. Whatever tabernacles in form must die. Saturn can therefore be seen as the grim reaper, but without Saturn, there could be no beauty of proportion, no physical or emotional or mental or spiritual evolution. Despite sorrow, despite horror, the heart eventually gains understanding and re-establishes balance.

   "Be careful. The unbalanced energies of Saturn manifest as the Hinderers. Remember, these fiends might often seem like friends, but all they do is hamper, delay, and frustrate. They love to obstruct, interfere, and thwart. They live to inhibit and fetter and stymie, and they will block and burden and cripple you so that you can no longer continue on your path."

The Hinderers

   Meanwhile, Claire notices a boy on an orange dragon close to the seashore. She thinks that maybe talking with someone closer to her age for a change might be fun, so she spirals down to meet him.

   "Hi!" Claire blurts out when she flutters near him.

   "Hello, bug! Nice wings!" he responds enthusiastically.

   "How did you learn to fly on a dragon?" Claire inquires.

   "I hang out with all the right people. They have shown me many things. I could show you too," he smiles.

   "I'd really like that. But may I ask what kinds of things?" 

   "Of course! If you listen to me you can be rich and famous and stay forever young, like me! Would you like that?"

   "Oh, yes, please! What would you like me to do?"

   "First, you need to listen only to me and do everything I say. Can you do that?"

   "I think so, yes."

   "Good, 'cause it's your fault if you can't!"

   "I'll try not to let you down." Claire frowned.

   "You need to stop listening to all those weirdos out there. They just fill your head with nonsense."

   "Okay," Claire mumbled.

   "And you must never question me. Whatever I say goes. You got that?"

   "But what if I can't do it."

   "Then you'll be sorry! Why do you think I hold a snake and ride a dragon? Do you think, tiny bug, that you can escape from a dragon?"

   "Oh, my. No," Claire muttered.

   "Don't worry. I'll pay you what you need to survive, or almost enough. You can just go into debt if you need more than I give you and pay me back later when you're rich and famous."

   "But when do I get to be rich and famous?"

   "You need to prove yourself first, little bug! Not everyone can prove themselves worthy. Really, what are you thinking? You don't really know much of anything, do you?"

   Claire stared at the flame-like dragon squirming in the water. "Do I really have to do this?" she asked. "I'm fine the way I am. I like my journey."

   The boy roared with laughter, "You won't last long without me!"

   "Why are you doing this?" Claire whined.

   "I want to help you. Can't you see? You might end up a slave to the money till you die, but you never know, you might be able to prove yourself worthy! You might be thinking of escaping, but you'll never get away from me!"

   "You just want me to remain powerless!" Claire hissed. Suddenly, she launched into the sky and flew as fast as she could away from the boy and the dragon. Far below, the dragon seemed stuck in the water and the rocks, but she kept flying away as quickly as she could, nevertheless.

Go on a different journey with Mr. Mellifluous.

   

   

   

   

   

 All Text, Music, and Illustrations, including Paintings, Photographs, and 3D models, Copyright © 2022 by Jim Robbins.

FOUR OF SWORDS

Meet the Lord of Rest from Strife.

Decan: Jupiter in 21 - 30 degrees of LibraTree of Life Association: Jupiter in Chesed (Fourth Sphere)

Mr. Mellifluous and the Lord of Rest from Strife

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   You continue your journey with Mr. Mellifluous through the realm of Swords and soon find yourself in a church, where a person, who at first seems a recumbent effigy, remains in deep meditation. Three swords point directly down at him, but a fourth, horizontal sword rests beneath him.
   Then you notice a brilliant stained glass window with a mother and child, perhaps Mother Mary and Jesus, above him. For a moment, the window suggests the vividness of a vision. You close your eyes as if the knight is drawing you into a meditative state. After awhile—you are not quite sure how long—you have a vision of a crowned woman in a red robe holding a sword straight up and down in her right hand and golden scales in the other.

Justice: Libra

   Suddenly she speaks, “You can maintain balance deep in the soul even when conflict rages around you, but you must go below the conscious mind, which is so often full of strife and contradiction. Deep in the subconscious is a state where symbols, patterns of spiritual principle, manifest. In this state of deep transformation and regeneration, the higher self reveals patterns of the harmony, magnificence, and abundance of the spirit.

Wheel of Fortune: Jupiter

   “Here in this inner realm, you have visions and hear wise voices. You can transcend time and the five senses and establish balance within yourself so that you can then manifest harmony, which eventually results in greater harmony for your family and your community.”

King of Cups

   Claire, meanwhile, is flying above a killer whale when she notices a King on a throne in the middle of the ocean. Since the whale apparently isn't in the mood to talk, Claire floats over to the King.

   "Hello, your majesty, how are you today?" Claire asks politely.

   "Very well, my child. How are you?" the King of Cups replies.

   "Fine, thank you," Claire responds. "I am just wondering how you can be on a throne in the middle of the ocean."

   "Notice, my child, that water moves around us, but remember that it also moves within us. Most people don't realize that archetypal forces also move within them and around them. Most people don't know that they can access extremely powerful forces to maintain harmony and balance in their world.

   "Unfortunately, to most people what I am saying probably seems as bizarre as finding a king on a throne in the middle of the ocean. They cannot believe it unless they see it."

   "I think I know what you mean, your majesty," Claire responds.

   "See the water in the cup and the water that surrounds you and feel the water within you. There is an underlying unity of consciousness, and you and I are drops within that ocean of consciousness. But also remember that there are subtle forces with vast power and knowledge that maintain harmony and balance within the cosmos. Most people won't believe it, but these powers of harmony work with us, if we have knowledge, to maintain harmony in our world...."

   "Yes, your majesty, I believe you," Claire replied as she gazed at the water in the cup, then at the water in the ocean, and felt the blood rushing through her veins....

   

Go on a different adventure with Mr. Mellifluous.

 All Text, Music, and Illustrations, including Paintings, Photographs, and 3D models, Copyright © 2022 by Jim Robbins.

FIVE OF SWORDS

Meet the Lord of Defeat.

Decan: Venus in 1 - 10 degrees of AquariusTree of Life Association: Mars in Geburah (Fifth Sphere)

Mr. Mellifluous and the Lord of Defeat

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   You find yourself with Mr. Mellifluous by the sea once again, where a man has seized five swords, apparently from two other men, one of whom is walking away while the other stands with his head in his hands. The gleeful winner, who can't even hold all of the swords, appears to have triumphed over the other two in some struggle for power. There is no blood on the ground, and the ocean is growing calmer as the storm clouds begin to disperse.
   “What subtle forces do you feel here?”

The Star: Aquarius

   You open your mind and immediately receive impressions, sensing the powerful instinct of combat, related to the God Mars, and the instinct of reproduction, associated with the Goddess Venus. Suddenly you imagine the Goddess under the stars who pours water from her vessels.

The Empress: Venus

   “Instincts are facets of the Gods,” the Goddess insists. “Humanity's animal nature is on one end of a spectrum that includes its spiritual nature on the other end. The instincts of sex and combat are part of the spectrum of energy associated with Venus and Mars, who are lovers. Their energy is often disruptive on the physical plane, but on the higher planes the energy transforms into the ideals of harmony and beauty and love and discipline and courage and justice.

The Tower: Mars

   "Powerful thought-forms can rise from instincts within humans, intense emotions linked with images that can cause great fear or rage or other unbalanced or negative reactions. Negative thoughts and emotions together can suddenly turn crowds into mobs. Negative thought-forms can influence whole societies to attack others as enemies.

   "A deep understanding of the holiness of all energy and of the underlying unity of all consciousness can lead to a diffusion of negative thoughts and feelings so that a person or society can manifest ideal energies rooted in the instincts, which humanity has understood as the powers of the Gods to create harmony and balance out of chaos or disorder. Few realize that human beings have the power to use spiritual will, combined with spiritual understanding, to create harmony from disorder in a god-like way. 

   “When the star of higher awareness awakens within consciousness, the negative energies of the instincts can be neutralized so that the ideals of each type of archetypal energy can be realized. Instead of cruelty and destructiveness, a person or society can manifest the ideal energies of Mars, which are  discipline and sacrifice and courage and justice, for instance. Until that happens, humanity will no doubt continue to get caught up in a destructive cycle of winning and losing, triumph and defeat, associated with the negative aspects of competition and power and dominance.”

The Burners

   Claire meanwhile notices a bright flame rushing through the sky toward her. Curious, she wings toward it. The flame, Claire realizes, is actually a devilish person riding a fiery horse-like creature with talons. When the devilish person gazes in her direction, Claire senses that she is in terrible danger. She feels that this creature wants to burn everything to ashes, even children and fairies.  

   Claire looks away and zooms in the opposite direction as quickly as possible until she is sure that she is out of danger.

   

Go on a different adventure with Mr. Mellifluous.

All Text, Music, and Illustrations, including Paintings, Photographs, and 3D models, Copyright © 2022 by Jim Robbins.  

SIX OF SWORDS

Meet the Lord of Earned Success.

Decan: Mercury in 11 - 20 degrees of AquariusTree of Life Association: Sun in Tiphareth (Sixth Emanation)
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Mr. Mellifluous and the Lord of Earned Success

   Suddenly you and Mr. Mellifluous find yourselves on a boat crossing a river. Near you, a skilled boatman is propelling his boat forward with a long pole. Six long swords stand near an adult and a child.

The Star: Aquarius

   The boatman's pole must descend deep into the water to push against the bottom of the river. This act reminds you of the Goddess who is pouring liquid from a jug into a pond as though into a pool of the subconscious. Suddenly you are back with the Goddess.

The Magician: Mercury

   As she pours water from the jugs, the pool and the land both seem refreshed by a seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy. The Goddess states, “A single-pointed focus is essential for accomplishing any goal. Mercury, God of the deep mind, aids in any effort to realize a dream or reach a new shore. Mercury is the messenger of the Gods: Often, when you are focused on some purpose, the sun of the psyche, the higher self, communicates insights from deep in the soul to the conscious mind.

The Sun: Path 30

   “Mercury, however, does not work alone. The Magician receives inspirations from the Source and brings the energy down through the archetypal, mental, and astral planes to manifest in the physical world. Even seemingly simple acts, such as going on a journey or caring for a family, require planning, understanding and skill--and even inspiration. The intellect is as essential in mundane survival as it is in reaching the farthest shores.”

   You gaze in quiet admiration as the boatman once again propels his boat forward.

The Knight of Cups

with Claire

   As she flies over an arid region, Claire notices a knight on a white horse near a stream just freshened by rain. 

   The Knight, who holds a golden cup, seems deep in thought while all the while he keeps his horse in check. He doesn't seem to notice as Claire waves her hand in front of his face.

   "Hello, Sir Knight, I hope I am not disturbing you!" Claire blurts out.

   "I was just envisioning a golden cup and plate on a pure white tablecloth, above which floats a golden equal-armed cross," the Knight of Cups mutters. "I have received a message from the deep mind, and I am now interpreting it."

   "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude."

   "The cup and plate and cross are golden. I interpret that to mean that they are incorruptible, like spirit."

   "Please, sir, go on," Claire responds.

   "The cup and plate suggest abundance. The equal-armed cross suggests harmony. The white of the tablecloth suggests an essential purity and unity of the spirit."

   "All of that sounds important. I mean, what do you think it means?" Claire asks politely.

   "Hmmm," the Knight says. "It is a brilliant banquet that reveals the harmony, abundance, and magnificence of the human spirit."

   Claire smiles. "That is just so lovely!" she exclaims.

   "My horse is going to drink deep of the stream again. Then, I daresay, together we are going to fly farther and deeper into this profoundly mysterious wilderness!"

   "Good luck. Be careful!" Claire waves as she flutters away.

Go on a different adventure with Mr. Mellifluous.