The Journey of the Cards: The Strength

The Strength: the Beauty and the Beast, the Woman and the Primitive, the Human and the Animal within.  She appears to be gentle and almost fragile and yet she is closing the animal’ mouth. Her eyes are locked with the lion’s one. Her gentle but firm posture shows how confident she is. She does not recognise the beast but rather see the shadow self that is about to be accepted and embraced. The fare hair, the white shirt and the wreath of spring flowers refer to the purity of the spirit. The feminine is combined with the sign of the infinity above her head. The same sign is to be found in the card of the Magician as they are both masters:  The Magician is the master of all four elements, and the Strength is a master of her own animal instincts and she is in control of her own weakness.

She uses care, love and sweetness to tame the beast. The lion has its tail between its legs, but not in fear but with understandings and gratitude towards her. He knows that she will not take his life but rather invite him to follow her on the journey.

The red lion is the masculinity and the white dress of the woman is the symbolic representation of femininity, and just like in ,,real,, life the gentle giving nature of women, tames the fearful and possessive nature of men.  And so the balance is found even for a short while.

To overpower anything in life one does not need strength on the physical level, but most of all need the strength of the spirit and the mind.

The story of the Strength:  Recognising duality, embracing the shadow.

© ZANARA

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The Journey of the Cards: The Fool

0 The Fool

A ring, a circle, an endless end and a beginning of it all in one.
The powerful zero contains all and nothing, all possibilities and all impossible things in it.
It is the beginning from before the beginning. In the Tarot, this card represents what lies before the beginning of the Heroes’ Journey of the Soul into the material world. It is the backstage, the preparation for the big introduction. It holds its breath waiting for the curtain to be lifted, in complete darkness. This is the spiritual world, the thought before it has been said and anchored to the world into a shape, form, and meaning. It represents the loose idea of the idea itself before being dressed into anything concrete. Not yet.
As I wrote in the Prologue of my first book, every story has a beginning. But before any beginning, there is another story glued to this one. So we need to cut between meanings, between ends and beginnings and to make our own beginning. Or more precisely to give birth to our beginning.
So it comes the zero or the Fool, with the figure of the happy child in a man’s body. His eyes pinned to the sky, his feet stepping into the nothingness, his heart in the clouds. He is pure thought and the innocent of the unknown, individual living into the state before any paradigms and memories of good and bad.
The Fool walks the Earth and trust completely in God’s will or Universal laws as he knows no others. He suspects no downfalls or betrayals as he is the purity of the Ether. He is the part of us that craves to be left unaware, even ignorant of any social norms or human laws. He is the innocent explorer that takes whatever comes his way and he is always surprised and never judges if something is good or bad. As for him, it is all the same. It is an adventure into the garden of the imagination with no limits, no obstacles, he walks the land of lucid dreaming and makes his dreams come true with no sense of tomorrow.
It is the state of pure happiness based on the here and now, no consequence, no time and no status quo.
It walks in the endless circle of life that expands and contracts in the count of his heartbeat. So he is the beginning of a story that never starts, as for it to start it needs to be born into the world. This is the only way of God to know him/herself and to make the first step into the living light.

The story of the ZERO: the Darkness before the Light

© ZANARA

Bliss

artwork by ZANARA

There is, somewhere out there, a type of bliss.

The leaves expecting rain. The flying geese, the roving ships in shoreless seas, the running living, chattering clouds of words and thoughts that gird the infinite outer space. The vacillation of the air and the unseen noise that pierces the Universe. The whisper of the World and the rhythmic mantra of God.

There is, somewhere out there, a type of bliss. A pair of wings, an embrace, a yearning. I walk along the gray London streets, under this crooked sky and my soul soars somewhere above that which is visible.

I feel the pulse below me, the unbridled elements gathering speed and strength for an explosion… and all memories become One! All streets I have walked on become one, all winds, beaches and sunrises become one. All my ‘I’s become one. I gather myself through time and space and become one. And in this wholeness I am the Universe and I know, in this moment-eternity, I know.

Every passing thought-arrow possesses my being and transforms it into itself. And I am simultaneously the flower and the cloud and the grass. I am one with the whole, and the sky descends to me, while the horizon is within reach. I touch creation with eyes and soul. I hear the hidden mechanisms, the wheels and belts, the entire skeleton of this Life moving, and their monotonous rhythm suggests peace.

This is the sound of bliss, of everything working, of the heart counting the world and continuing so until infinity. The moment, just for a moment, becomes eternity. And then, only then, a door opens and I take off, I fly and I feel. Then I perceive and I know. Then I connect all that is unconnected, then it is clear and everything has sense, then becomes now and forever. Then my soul is at unrefined, vibrating and always-moving peace. Then every detail finds its place, every colour symbolic and every breath steeped in warmth. Then I have no borders, no outlines, no traces, then I am the Universe and you and me and them. Then is the meaning of life. Then fire takes over me and soaks me, then life pours into me, then the rivers rise, then I am ancient and young, maid and warrior. Then the whole world is inspired and all the sorrow and happiness are in me. Then I am God and Goddess, then I am mortal and unending. Then I am Devil and Angel.

Then.

But this is a moment in the moment and then I return to the dream again, the one which resembles life. Just for a moment enlightenment pierces me and shakes me from the inside like a current – mortally hard am I connected to this unfeeling mastodon.

Author Zanara/ Translation Roberta