Tea-break Tarot School

The class is subdued today, I can see people are trying to be upbeat but there’s  sense of trepidation.  Tarot cards are just cards, with images, but if you’ve worked with them at all you will likely have that same feeling I do when I see a sword, oh boy, deep breath, this could be uncomfortable.

Swords are linked to the air element, and often this is described as our mental life, thoughts, ideas, plans, rationalism.  These things can feel constraining and they can also, in our lived experiences, lead us into difficult places, worry, overthinking, being focussed on the past or future, living in that slightly detached space of our “heads”.

There’s a different side to air though, which often gets missed and which I had neglected until a recent course of study pointed it out.  Air is the element of imagination, air is the element of life, breath, of inspiration.  Air is light, breezy, a strong wind will “blow the cobwebs away”.

Before beginning work on this suit spend a little time with the element air, play with it, connect with it, see what it has to teach you.

Exercise 48

Blow bubbles

Blow up a balloon and then, before you tie it, let it go and watch it fly

Fly a kite

Make a paper aeroplane

Practice connecting to your breath in meditation

Light incense and watch the smoke as it curls and dances

Use your imagination to draw/ paint/ mould something which makes you think of air.

Collect feathers.