Cards:

Rule 1 – Red is good and Black is bad:

B, R, B – A temporary truce or respite.  Don’t let your guard down, appearances can be deceiving.

Rule 2 – Suits:

S, H, S – A troubled (S, S) heart (H).

Rule 3 – Numerology:

9, 3, A – Changes (9), Things Growing (3), Beginnings (A)

Rule 4 – Card Definitions:

9 of Spades – Changes for the worse; The Client’s wish will not come true; Disappointment; Injury

3 of Hearts – Fertility; A child or children in general; Decorating or adding beauty to something; An emotional bond growing, little by little; A love triangle

A of Spades – A decision, generally an important one; A death or an ending; A big change

Outcome:

Troubled changes (9S) with a child (3H) will require that an important decision (AS) be made.

The AS coupled with a 9 of any suit speaks of drastic changes, with the suit speaking more clearly to the area of change.  As you can see, the cards can be divined in many ways, some I prefer not to put in writing… only today’s events will tell the whole story.

9 SPADES
F.L. Wright
Falling Water (sic)
Bear Run, 1936

I really like the line drawings in this deck. The house is actually called Fallingwater and is all one word. Bear Run is about 60 miles from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In 1934, Edgar Kauffman Jr. came to Wright’s fellowship at Taliesin for several months. He had studied architecture and knew he didn’t want to be an architect, but he was drawn to Wright’s ideas and philosophy. While there, his parents visited him and his father, Edgar Kauffman Sr., who was a wealthy department store owner in Pittsburgh, fell under Wright’s spell and asked him to design a country retreat for him.

They had some property in Bear Run and were using it for camping and swimming and generally roughing it on vacations, but wanted a permanent building there. They thought a nice woodsy house looking toward the waterfall which fell under a large boulder would be nice. They wanted to spend about 20 to 30 thousand dollars.

Weeks and weeks passed and no word came from Wright so Kauffman phoned Wright and asked to see how the plans were coming along. Wright pretended he had the plans done but he actually had not started them. Kauffman was going to be there in a couple of hours so Wright just sat down and drew, and drew, flipping sheets around and using up many pencils, and finally giving the drawing the name Fallingwater. His two assistants drew up the other two elevations while Wright was schmoozing with Kauffman.

Instead of being a rustic lodge opposite the waterfall, it was built around the boulder Mr. Kauffman used to sun himself on, and was all angled modernity with wood and stone and cantilevered concrete balconies. It also cost a hell of a lot more than $20,000 in the end. The engineers were sceptical this was a safe design but Wright went ahead, although the builder added some extra structural support on the sly.

The conservation of the house started in 1988, fifty years after it was built. Most buildings need a renovation by that time but this house needs to be preserved for historical reasons. Because of the humid environment over water it has mould and mildew problems, and always was a bit structurally iffy, so they had to add steel girders to support it for a while, eventually using newer methods like steel cables and post tensioning, using blocks joined to floor joists and the cantilever beams with tension added. The interior was saved as it was originally and strangely looks like a house from the late sixties—well ahead of its time.

Fallingwater, apart from being beautiful, reminds us all that when you are older and written off by society, as Wright was at the time, you still have your life experience, creativity, and intellect to draw on. More than an architectural legacy, Wright leaves us with a deeper philosophy every time we see this house.

I like it!

Here’s a past, present and future 3-card spread.  We should be able to get ‘down and dirty’ with that one since time is an issue today.  I was going through some papers that I need to file while looking for something and came across a little hand-out that I received from a class in “Cartomancy”.

Okay, so let me think of a question or issue…  something that has been on my mind lately has been my right arm/elbow.  It started to hurt last summer after marathon weed pulling and yard work type gardening sessions. I’m sure pulling on my lawn mower didn’t help either but I’ve mowed my own lawn for many years now.  I’ve never really recovered and while taking up yoga recently while holding some postures, I see that my right arm is noticeably weaker as compared to the left. 

I know that the subconscious mind and higher mind know what’s been going on with that elbow.  I just need to bring it to my conscience mind—thus, divination!

Let’s try this method for fun and see what additional insights about this elbow we can gain using the cards to bring forth information about the past, the present and the future of this elbow.  I guess my greatest concern would be around being able to regain the strength in the right arm and elbow again.

So, let the shuffle begin…. 3 cards… past, present, future.  Ha!  Just remembered that I need to take the joker out of the deck before I do the shuffle…. Here we go. 

Past:  9 of Spades

Well the first thing I’m thinking of has to do with how yard work relates to the gardening tool, a spade.  And YIKE, 9 relates (via numerology) to a transition, death, ending, permanent change.  Spades are used for digging in the garden.  Well, I pick up my card and look at what I wrote on the 9 of spades card itself.  On the card I wrote, “warning, papers, accidents”.  Does this mean that I had a warning and did not heed it and thus had an accident?  Gosh, I do remember it hurting like blazes at first, nearly like a muscle pull.  On the hand out paper it says, “Bad luck in all things, depression and low energy, destruction, deaths, extreme anxiety.”  Well, that’s pretty negative!  Isn’t it?   I don’t think that I need to go much further; after all, I already know the past.  I’m going to go with “a bad luck accident” in my interpretation.  I may look at the tarot suit of swords as a comparison.  The 9 of Swords in tarot is about worrying too much—that’s one interpretation that I’d give it.  One insight I’d give here to myself here is that my worry about the elbow (I did fret about it quite a lot because it has been limiting—hurting with nearly every moVement) may have prolonged my suffering.  Too much fretting kept the pain going perhaps.   Okay, let’s look at the present. 

Present:  8 of Diamonds

Okay, my first impression in just turning over this card was positive.  The red color of the diamonds is energizing and 8 is a strength number and indicate success.  And my elbow is getting better; it hurts less with activities since the start of spring and warmer weather.  I am strengthening it with Yoga which it seems to agree with more than with pulleys or free weights.  The yoga exercises are “closed chain” (physical therapy lingo from my days as a physical therapist) and the elbow and arm are responding slowly but I do see progress which is encouraging.  So, the 8 of diamonds could be indicating the success in the present.  Diamonds in playing cards relates to the suit of Pentacles (Coins) in the Tarot divination system.  Earth, earthy, materiality –that’s the archetype.  Hands on earth with yoga postures—that’s one way to interpret the earthiness of the suit of diamonds here and the numerological 8 which relates to strength and success adds to the interpretation.  I think the 8 of Diamonds, thus far, confirms what I already know and that is that what I am doing about the issue/problem/question about the elbow is positive.  But now, let’s look at what I wrote on this card in the cartomancy class that I took so very long ago.  Ha!  Well, I wrote “spending money”.  Well, I did buy a new yoga mat to do my yoga outside and a while back an elbow brace.  Let me look at the hand out to see if there’s more but before I do that, what is money? Energy.  So I am spending energy doing yoga.  Hmmmmm.  Honestly, it says “a marriage and travel late in life.  Financial ups and downs.”  I don’t know what marriage would have to do with this—I’m happily and contentedly single.  Ha ha.  I’m going to interpret that “marriage” reference to the marriage of the left and right arm being equal, merging in that respect.    Well, the ups and downs part may be a little message to me that there may still be good days and bad days with this elbow discomfort, but overall the progress is positive.  When we compare the tarot 8 of Pentacles which is the counterpart to the 8 of Diamonds in that system, we see someone working (image of someone working) on the card.  The card is about making efforts and those efforts being rewarded.  Sounds good so far.  Now, the future prediction… shall we go there?  Remember, I want to know if this arm is ever going to be good as new or at least back to the non-injured state (if not better than it was to start with).

Future:  10 of Diamonds

Okay, so here we have another coin or earth card.  I think of 10 as a successful number.  We always hear, “On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best…etc.”  So far, so good I think.  On the card I wrote, “small money”.  Hmmmmmmm.  Maybe this means that I will always have to maintain some (albeit small) effort to keep that arm in shape and pain-free.  Yet, on the other hand what the hand-out says about the 10 of Diamonds is this:  Money and travel highlighted.  Fortunate changes.  Well, yay! Sounds good to me!  Fortunate change is exactly what I wanted to hear and now I can hold a vision of this arm being pain-free and strong.  In the Tarot divination system, the 10 of Pentacles is one my favorite cards.  I would especially love it to come up when I asked about money in the future. 

And, that’s that.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m way overdue for my daily yoga session. However, I will do my work out today with renewed hope and increased optimism!   

I learned a little bit about cartomancy by doing this reading; I hope you did too.

Question of the day…

How do you handle the inexplicable?

This is from a deck called Animal Playing Cards published by the World Wildlife Fund. The suits are based on Ocean, Sky, Desert, and Forest. My friend sent it to me and I just love the graphics of the animals which are computer vector-based illustrations. I thought it rather appropriate since he excels at both regular and computer generated illustration.

The cards don’t identify the animals and some of them can be hard to spot, but they are all endangered species.

9 OF SPADES

Seems to be a chimpanzee. You know, I’ve never actually looked up the name of this animal to see where it originated. Some Bantu languages from the Congo area of Africa use the word chimpanzee for “ancestor” or possibly “mockman.”

The Western Chimpanzee is the most endangered. I didn’t realize that there are four types of chimp in the Pan troglodytes species. The forests that they live in are disappearing, hence their endangerment, plus they are poached or killed in civil wars that always seem to be raging in this part of Africa..

There is another species related to the chimp in the genus Pan called the Bonobo or the Pygmy Chimpanzee—never heard of it, but it has an eerily human face, even more so than the common chimpanzee. I think this is actually the animal on the card. He is called Pan paniscus, and it has the tufty hair on the head like the animal on the card. It is endangered and is considered rare and the least known of the apes; they are only found in the rainforests of the Congo.

Let’s have a visual comparison. As you can see, the Bonobos have thinner bodies and because of the hair on the head look even more human than the common chimpanzee that we see so much of. They share 98% of their genetic make-up with humans, and their hair even turns grey when they get older.

In the Personal Prophesy method of cartomancy, the 9 of Spades means heartache or unresolved grief or anguish. We were watching something on television last week and the person was talking about their mother and I started to get a bit weepy. My Mom has been dead for almost 19 years, but still it sits there. This card is not talking about just losing someone it’s about unresolved loss, unresolved grief, as if something is unfinished.

I can see that every human would carry such things, but because of my chronic pain I’m wondering if it has stuck in my tissues? Am I an endangered species? The great ape Juditha troglodytes, once plentiful and seen roaming through the rainforest, is now dying out, hidden in sparse cover, waiting for poachers and stray bullets to take her life.

Like the Bonobo, I seem a bit puzzled by it all, with a faraway look in my eyes.

9 of Spades: Image by George Fry

The first time I read about my Planetary Ruling Card, the 9 of Spades, I understood more clearly why my life has been filled with many losses. Letting go has not come easily for me. With my Mars in Cancer on my Descendant, I become VERY emotionally attached to the people I love and care for.

While growing up, my family and I moved on average every two years, and I said good-bye repeatedly to my friends. Jobs, careers, homes, relationships, even my physical appearance, has been a continual process of letting go, followed by the transformation of a new beginning in all of these areas. 9 of Spades people are constantly re-inventing themselves.

The 9 of Spades is one of two in the 52 card deck representing death and transformation. Nines are about completion, Spades deal with work, health and the spiritual side of life. Numerous experiences of letting go, releasing attachments and moving on has profoundly contributed to the depth of my spiritual understanding about the mysteries of life and death on this planet and its impermanence. It’s shaped me in ways that have brought me closer to understanding and feeling the essence and truth of who we are as spiritual beings, the immortal part of us that is great light and love…eternal, magnificent and shining.

© Holly Alexander at http://www.yourdivineblueprint, 2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Holly Alexander and http://www.yourdivineblueprint.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.