If you read some of the old wisdom texts, from Lao Tzu to the I Ching, you will note that whenever fate is mentioned, what is meant by it is actually flow. At least that’s my understanding of it.
In this sense ‘fate’ as a concept has nothing to do with fatality and resignation. It has to do with acknowledging the impermanence of all things and the fact that we’re constantly moving. This is the opposite of being idle in the face of ‘there’s nothing you can do’.
In a way this is always correct, the fact that no matter how much you try, your efforts will never be the expression of flow but rather the expression of fear. So you might just as well relax about everything, since from the perspective of flow, there’s nothing you can do other than go with it as a matter of course.
Here’s an example of how I experience flow through observance:
Today is the New Moon. We associate the new moon with the start of a new cycle. We tend to say yes, rather than no, as we move into new projects and deals.
As it happens today I said ‘yes, let’s move ahead,’ when I OKayed the proof for my new book: The Power of the Pips: Courting Numbers in Cartomancy.
What I also observe is that the book has 111 pages. Magic number.
If you look at the cover, you’ll see a strange sign in the grass. It’s Norwegian for King.
I found this sign by the roadside in Norway, not far from where I was vacationing this summer up in the mountains. I was intrigued. What is a King doing in the ditch? I had to rescue him.
I also took a picture of where I found the sign, and while walking back to the cabin, I decided to use the image for the cover of my planned book. I wasn’t so sure what it was going to be auspicious of, but it has become clear to me that this sign was going to be auspicious of my desire to write from a place of integrity. Not that I don’t do that already, but sometimes there are moments when I compromise regarding the strength of my integrity. I’m working on the completely unwavering kind where there’s no question about my resolve.
One of the chapters in the book deals with the consequences of betraying our integrity when we make the decision to go with the flow of planetary movements at the detriment of flow that’s beyond our calculations.
Let’s see. The New Moon is in Aquarius. I could find a good cause to talk about that speaks to a specific community. I do this, and everyone will like me. Were I to critique the community, thus confusing Aquarius with Virgo, then, lord have mercy on my soul. Everyone would hate my guts.
Here’s my point:
There’s flow as fate, the fate that recognizes only one path, namely stepping on whatever you happen to step on without judgments, à la, ‘oh this is good, I can feel this is going somewhere,’ or ‘this is bad, it’s going nowhere,’ and there’s calculated flow based on what you project is the case according to illusions that lock you in likes and dislikes.
But since I like to observe all sorts, abiding also in the magic of planetary movements, let’s test this theory of giving you something to think about at the collective level. Let’s see how much you’ll like it.
Here’s my question for the cards – as usual, the cards fall completely at random on the table. I never select them in advance to fit my line, as that practice would bore me to death.
How can we speak from the heart with integrity, and thus place ourselves completely above all prescriptions, whether such prescriptions are part of our mundane lifestyle or part of occult systems of magic we happen to observe and apply to our daily actions?
The cards give us a very apt message here:
Stop manipulating, and lead with integrity [Ha!] You can only move a community with the heart, not from a place that’s hypocritically calculated. Forcing others into fear and bondage is not the path of the heart.
Happy New Moon – mine insists imperially on the sovereign integrity of the King. Look at these cards! Aren’t they a miracle to fit just what I was actually thinking…
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The Power of the Pips will be available soon in two formats: as paperback and as an ebook in pdf form accompanying a deep-dive lecture followed by a live Q&A in reading the pip cards of the Marseille Tarot. Stay tuned.
The foundation course in reading with the Marseille Tarot is also happening in the beginning of February. Stay tuned for the registration call.
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