Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

(Okay, really out of the mouth of a strapping 17 year old young man, who is all muscle and normally wouldn't be caught dead with a deck of tarot cards but sometimes, not often but every now and again, he will indulge his old madre in this way.)

Illuminated Tarot- Seven of Swords

The J Man and I were playing The Tarot Game (oodles of fun, at least for me, but I'd play with matchsticks if we labeled them with the Major Arcana) and on one of his turns J drew the Seven of Swords.  I love hearing what people who don't know tarot think about various cards, so I was super eager to hear his thoughts on the oft-maligned Seven.

"I see this guy, right, and he was in the circus, and that was like his family, you know, like in A Bugs' Life.  They are not related but they are a family, because family is what you decide to make it.  Anyway, they kicked him out because he was doing something intolerable to the rest of him, and now he has to make his own way in life alone, and that hurts him a lot.  Those Swords I see as blame, but righteous blame, the kind he earned.  He did this to himself and he wants to try to leave some of that blame on the doorstep of others, because it is too much burden for him to bear alone, to realize that he ruined his own family in this way and things may not ever be the same.  What he doesn't realize is, as soon as he is ready to own those Swords of blame for himself, he can go back into the fold, because family loves you no matter what.  That is what makes them a family.  They love him and want him back, but he has to use those Swords in a safe way."

Deviant Moon- Seven of Swords

I almost fell out of my chair!  I was astounded.  I generally do not see the Seven of Swords as thievery and betrayal, unless the cards specifically point that way, as I prefer to look at in the Hermetic tradition- The Lord of Unstable Effort, and the Deviant Moon Tarot illustrates this to great effect.  However, my son said something to me that really blew my mind- sometimes the Seven of Swords is not about stealing, but about trying to unfairly or wrongly place something somewhere, such as blame, or perhaps, in another kind of reading, planting evidence.  Often we see the figure as stealthily gathering the Swords, up to no good, but he could just as easily be leaving the Swords about, also possibly up to no good.

Have you had a card turned around for you, even from an unlikely source?  I am telling you, I love taking beginner tarot classes because the things I hear from the fresh sets of eyes really make me think about the cards in a new way, and I love that!  Every single day, tarot offers me something to new to think about, something new to ponder, and what an amazing blessing that is!

(This is also one of my favorite things about having kids, how they keep me young, fresh, and how they have become people complete unto themselves.)




These images are from the Illuminated Tarot by Carol Herzer at SoulGuidance.com and the Deviant Moon Tarot by Patrick Valenza, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.