degringolade

Road Hazards

Fifth three cards (road hazards):

(16) Le feu de ciel
(4) L’empereur
(13) La mort

Finally, this is the last spread that I will describe but not define. This one deals with road hazards. Maybe it will even talk about good detours. I am just happy that this part of the process is coming to an end. After I finish with this post, I am going to forget about it for a while (give it a week or so) and then I will try to begin the integration into the beginnings of a hypothesis that will be examined in a year or so.

(16) Le feu de ciel

I started here with Robinson because I could use a little positivity after the last little bit, but it doesn’t look like she is gonna deliver:

In divination the card suggests a sudden change in affairs that might require uprooting or dislodgment of some kind. It might indicate a sudden realization or awakening to higher truth. It might be time to regroup and to rethink our life whether we are ready or not;

So on to Wang: He is hard to figure out when it comes to the major arcana: The best I can come up with after reading is that there is a bit of comeuppane in the road and the way/things that we believe is going to get challenged (maybe even slapped around).

As always, Crowley is short and sweet and not exactly uplifting:

Ambition, fighting, war, courage or:

Destruction, danger, fall, ruin.

(4) L’empereur

So I’m gonna start with Crowley because he is such a buzzkill.

War, Conquest, Victory, Strife, Ambition

Still have hopes for some positive vibes from Robinson: Maybe a little, but not much:

The divinatory meanings of the Emperor card usually allude to authority and structure. He follows the Empress and applies order and configuration to her creative imagination. He is the regulator who imposes organization to what could easily become chaotic and dispersed energy. The card symbolizes order, reason and intellect being applied according to Law and within a given time and space. It also implies fixity, a solid structure or mindset and sometimes inflexible solidity. Key 4 might indicate a confining situation or a rigid, stubborn or closed and despotic mind, especially when the card is in reverse.

Wang is difficult here: I will re-read him again, but reight now I am cutting my losses an do an off-the-cuff summary. He sorta leans into the female telling the male what to do, but then obliquely talks about the male being a bit of a badass. I have no idea of what to do with this none

(13) La mort

Needless to say, I am not super happy with this.

Wang is very difficult to synopsize here. Best that I can do is that there is a phase-transition a comin’ (sorry, but I am a chem nerd and that is the best I could come up with.

I expected Crowley at his worst here, but he talks about age, transition and involuntary/unexpected change. Hopeful here.

Oddly enough, Robinson is clear to me here.

This card is the symbol of the constant renovation of the universe—the disintegration that reintegration may follow

Mystically, Death is the real emperor of the material world. The card can allude to physical death, to any failure in business that requires reorganization and weeding out nonessentials.

Robinson also had a specific paragraph about the interaction between the Emperor and Death. This actually is beyond the scope that I am trying for in these first five posts on this, but since it was right out there in black and white, I am going to quote the whole thing here:

The Emperor as number 4 needs to be considered in a reading with this deck. What kind of “dominion” or “rulership” does the Reaper reflect in a reading? We reap what we sow; is it possible, then, that we could be spreading ourselves too thin and ignoring, in the turmoil and anxieties of daily life, the needs of our soul? When describing the Magician, Manly Hall notes that, “the bones which support the body become the natural symbol of the spirit.” Stripped to the bone, how is our foundation holding us? Is it holding up at all? Mystically, Death is the real emperor of the material world. The card can allude to physical death, to any failure in business that requires reorganization and weeding out nonessentials.

I am going to take a break from this for a week. Gotta let things digest and as I asked about a year or so, there is no hurry and the affairs of a nation aren’t considered in the news cycle. If anyone wants to give their two cents about how each of the stack interact together, I would in no way be offended.