Time and the Tarot
Topic: Time
Many of us of are in the mindset of instant gratification - if we are Americans, our cultural lifestyle is fast paced: fast food, drive through anything, hopes for instant fame and instant riches. Many of us secretly hope our dreams will be fulfilled immediately. The Tarot in its greatest capacity is a complete spiritual system. As it foretells the future it seeks to unfold the rich stories of each of our lives with each reading and even with each question asked "when", "why" or "who". The Tarot wants to deliver our answers in a storylike manner that offers to us a comprehensive understanding of our greatest individual spiritual lessons and growth. If we are impatient, we won't get the story and if we don't get the story, the lesson is too often repeated. Time is not cast aside by implementation of a strong will - we cannot will a necessary process of spiritual growth to shorten its length. If somehow we manage through our own cleverness to usurp the time needed for the story to unfold we are often met with another stronger, more challenging lesson. Practicing patience may cause our egos to take a beating which then may also bring us to believe in something greater than ourselves. It can show us to trust the process and can even cause us to reconsider what we once deemed as a "must have". The Tarot can open up to us the story of our lives and present us with moments of great discovery, renewal of beliefs and a focus on the value of the present. If we do not allow the story to unfold we can create chaos like a child frantically bouncing from room to room picking up toys and asking anyone in sight where is mine? Until we finally accept that our story may hold much more if we learn to flow with change and allow gentle guidance to emerge. Allowing patience in allows us to develop gratitude for the present and what we already have while seeing the possibilities of the future. The Tarot can offer us the story of our life's journey if we take the time to truly understand what is being conveyed. No one wants to get the "Hanged Man" in their reading - all will groan and roll their eyes in dismay at the card that denotes patience and sacrifice are coming. But it is the process, the journey, the path we take that is so important - not just the destination. The Tarot can say look here is your journey and if we pay close attention, we can learn why. It is then, and only then, we can exert our will to change the future to an even greater destination.