February 9, 2010 - The Six of Swords

The Six of Swords visited me at the end of December. It is a card of melancholy, recovery, and travel. It continues to amaze me how right on the mark Tarot can be. Joan Bunning calls this card, "The Slough of Despond," a place where many fears, and doubts, and discouraging apprehensions settle. Hmmm. Sounds pretty familiar. But it also is a card of recovery, of picking up the pieces and feeling hope again. It's that first hint of spring in the thick of winter, the gift that reminds you "this too shall pass," that we live in a world of cycles and spirals and our frozen earth will thaw and bloom again.

It is also a card of travels, inner journeys and outer ones. It usually suggests a new frame of mind. Since I have just come back from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and am heading to Alaska on Saturday, this card is spot on. Outer journeys, definitely, but inner journeys as well. I find I am ready for that transformation, the one I'm sure is coming. Alaska in winter can't help but transform you.

In the Jane Austen Tarot, the Six of Swords is the Six of Quills and depicts a young Frederick Wentworth beginning his high sea adventures. He has just been rejected by Anne Elliot because of his youth and unsure prospects. Anne believes that he will make something of himself, but when advised by her mentor to reject him because his future is still unsure, Anne complies. Frederick loves Anne and is angry and hurt at her rejection, but he is a practical man and knows life must go on as he must, even without the woman he loves. That fate brings them back to one another is something both Anne and Frederick never expect, but they are both wise enough to leap at the chance to be together when it presents itself again.

I had dream when I was at Pacifica about sailing with the man I loved. He was going to leave me at a port and sail on. He might be back, he might not but my path was not with him. I tried desperately to transform myself into the figurehead of ship just to stay with him. I felt myself turn to wood bit by bit and about half way, I realized I couldn't do it. I would have to let him go without me, knowing I might never see him again. And while this dream certainly had deep symbolism at the time, it was also remarkably prescient. I was on a journey with a man I loved and we could not go on together. We may never travel together again in that way. I have to make my own life just as I did in the dream.

What Would Jane Do?

"If your current conditions are unpleasant, know that you have the intelligence and skills to improve your lot in life. Courge and wit will take you far, and it is a fact that fortune favors the brave....Have confidence in yourself and go forth into your future." p. 109