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tarot_scholar) wrote2015-11-29 04:21 pm
tarot_scholar) wrote2015-11-29 04:21 pm
Entry tags:
Shadow Work November, Day 8 (11)
I sat down to do this reading thinking that the Id/Ego/Superego reading was next. I double checked the graphic just now and I see that it should be The Devil (What do I need to let go of?). If you're counting along, I haven't forgotten that one. I'll get to it next time. :)
If you're not up on your Freud, the id, ego, and superego are the three parts that make up the sum total of your conscious experience. The id is pure desire and impulse; the ego is calculated strategy, and the superego is the conscience and ideal self. One way to envision the three parts is the ego navigating conflicting desires: what the id wants (usually something akin to immediate gratification) and what the superego wants (usually to be a better person, or to live up to some ideal).
Deck used: St. Petersburg
Id: 2 of Clubs
Ego: 5 of Swords
Superego: Knight of Coins
First of all, the 2 of Wands (Clubs in this deck) turned up in the very first reading for this challenge, in a position with a similar meaning. (Though, it did turn up reversed; here, it's upright. Has something changed?) I don't have much to say otherwise except: hey, check that out!
Referring back to the summary I gave above, what happens when we think about the 5 of Swords trying to navigate between what the 2 of Clubs wants and what the Knight of Coins wants? What are those wants, even?
The 2 of Clubs is often framed as being at a crossroads, or having to make a decision. That is how I usually see it: Ace is the divine inspiration, 2 is the act of decision and discernment that puts the project underway (I'll do it this way, not that way), and 3 the choice has been made and, if you've been successful, you're beginning to reap the fruits of your labor.
An unfettered 2 of Clubs, however, can quickly become a bossyboots. The verbiage Waite uses in the Pictorial Guide to the Tarot is rife with allusions to power:
In any case, if I were to deny that I'm a bossyboots, I would be a liar liar, pants on fire. This sometimes translates into me being a control freak, even with the best intentions: "I can help!" beomes "Ugh just let me do it myself."
Meanwhile, the superego here is personified as the Knight of Coins. Who do I aspire to be? Someone focused, productive, competent, goal-oriented.
The conflict between the two, I think, is not choosing battles wisely. A proper 2 of Clubs knows which tasks to prioritize, which ones to delegate, and how to plan for success; an impulsive 2 of Clubs (as it is here, in the role of id) just wants to DO ALL THE THINGS! AT ONCE!. And guess what the Knight of Coins is good at? Prioritizing, delegating, planning. The big difference is patience. The 2 of Clubs here has exactly zero. The Knight of Coins, on the other hand, has limitless patience.
Which finally leads us to the ego, the drive stuck between the patience and focus of the Knight of Coins and the impatient DO IT NOW of the 2 of Clubs. Who is the captain at the helm, exactly?
The 5 of Swords, while an apt descriptor of my mood recently (BURN IT ALL, SALT THE EARTH), and it's easy to see how the 2 of Clubs would be tempting for the figure in the 5 of Swords. Again, if we're talking about power and control here, the figure in the 5 of Swords has certainly wrested that from his opponents.
(I like the touch of the burning city in the background of this card; I'm sure there is a serious business symbolic meaning with the open waters in Colman-Smith's imagery, but there is something immediately viscreal about a city on fire.)
If you go back, there is certainly a thread between the foreround figure in the 5 of Swords and the topics covered here in the last few days: defensiveness and more defensiveness. The 5 of Swords is definitely a sort of preemptive defense: "the best defense is a good offense" and the like.
Patience is needed. Patience, patience, patience.
If you're not up on your Freud, the id, ego, and superego are the three parts that make up the sum total of your conscious experience. The id is pure desire and impulse; the ego is calculated strategy, and the superego is the conscience and ideal self. One way to envision the three parts is the ego navigating conflicting desires: what the id wants (usually something akin to immediate gratification) and what the superego wants (usually to be a better person, or to live up to some ideal).
Deck used: St. Petersburg
Id: 2 of Clubs
Ego: 5 of Swords
Superego: Knight of Coins
First of all, the 2 of Wands (Clubs in this deck) turned up in the very first reading for this challenge, in a position with a similar meaning. (Though, it did turn up reversed; here, it's upright. Has something changed?) I don't have much to say otherwise except: hey, check that out!
Referring back to the summary I gave above, what happens when we think about the 5 of Swords trying to navigate between what the 2 of Clubs wants and what the Knight of Coins wants? What are those wants, even?
The 2 of Clubs is often framed as being at a crossroads, or having to make a decision. That is how I usually see it: Ace is the divine inspiration, 2 is the act of decision and discernment that puts the project underway (I'll do it this way, not that way), and 3 the choice has been made and, if you've been successful, you're beginning to reap the fruits of your labor.
An unfettered 2 of Clubs, however, can quickly become a bossyboots. The verbiage Waite uses in the Pictorial Guide to the Tarot is rife with allusions to power:
...riches, fortune, magnificence...The design gives one suggestion; here is a lord overlooking his dominion and alternately contemplating a globe; it looks like the malady, the mortification, the sadness of Alexander amidst the grandeur of this world's wealth.
In any case, if I were to deny that I'm a bossyboots, I would be a liar liar, pants on fire. This sometimes translates into me being a control freak, even with the best intentions: "I can help!" beomes "Ugh just let me do it myself."
Meanwhile, the superego here is personified as the Knight of Coins. Who do I aspire to be? Someone focused, productive, competent, goal-oriented.
The conflict between the two, I think, is not choosing battles wisely. A proper 2 of Clubs knows which tasks to prioritize, which ones to delegate, and how to plan for success; an impulsive 2 of Clubs (as it is here, in the role of id) just wants to DO ALL THE THINGS! AT ONCE!. And guess what the Knight of Coins is good at? Prioritizing, delegating, planning. The big difference is patience. The 2 of Clubs here has exactly zero. The Knight of Coins, on the other hand, has limitless patience.
Which finally leads us to the ego, the drive stuck between the patience and focus of the Knight of Coins and the impatient DO IT NOW of the 2 of Clubs. Who is the captain at the helm, exactly?
The 5 of Swords, while an apt descriptor of my mood recently (BURN IT ALL, SALT THE EARTH), and it's easy to see how the 2 of Clubs would be tempting for the figure in the 5 of Swords. Again, if we're talking about power and control here, the figure in the 5 of Swords has certainly wrested that from his opponents.
(I like the touch of the burning city in the background of this card; I'm sure there is a serious business symbolic meaning with the open waters in Colman-Smith's imagery, but there is something immediately viscreal about a city on fire.)
If you go back, there is certainly a thread between the foreround figure in the 5 of Swords and the topics covered here in the last few days: defensiveness and more defensiveness. The 5 of Swords is definitely a sort of preemptive defense: "the best defense is a good offense" and the like.
Patience is needed. Patience, patience, patience.