Wednesday 10 August 2011

Todays Reading - Maat and Tradition

Today’s cards are from the Goddess Guidance deck by Doreen Virtue with the illustration of Maat by Lisa Iris and The Wildwood Tarot by Mark Ryan and John Matthews, illustrations by Will Worthington.

Maat and The Nine of Stones (Tradition).




The card I pulled for today’s blog was Maat, the Goddess of divine order, justice and truth. As I got Maat a couple of weeks ago I decided to draw another card to accompany her and to try and pinpoint what today’s message is about. I have used the Goddess deck with The Wildwood Tarot very successfully in the past and so today we have the 9 of Stones from Mark Ryan’s deck to deepen the insight. The 9 of Stones is about Tradition and shows the man from the Gundestrup cauldron holding a Torc in one hand and a snake in the other. The moon is full behind him as he meditates in view of the Standing stones. The Torc represents lordship or authority and the snake represents wisdom. The Man himself connects us with our ancient past and the way in which people saw the world. The standing stones looming in the background give a sense of the ancestors making their presence known. The full moon reminds us to look a little harder for the truth as sometimes it is only found by searching through the shadows.

When I drew Maat I immediately thought again of the rioting on the streets in the UK. As a nation we have been appalled and angered by what we have seen, but now people are beginning to question why this has happened. Humans like to find answers and sometimes we clutch at the one we get to first as it’s easier than delving deeper into the grime and dirt, which may be full of creepy crawlies that we would rather ignore. 

I feel the message today is one of justice and fairness. The country wants both of these. The people who have been involved in the crimes committed will be brought to justice and dealt with fairly. But there is also the ongoing police enquiry as to why the police shot dead Mark Duggan, who apparently didn’t open fire first. In England the fact that you have an illegal weapon makes you a threat to lives and so this doesn’t immediately put the blame on the police. These cards are pointing into the truth coming to light and again justice being served fairly.

Many journalists are now turning to the psychological reason of why these teenagers (mostly) think that rioting is a good idea at all! Yesterday’s card gives us the reason. Lack. But the Tradition card is telling us that there is more to this than meets the eye. This problem goes back into history. Rioting has always been something that humans do if they feel they are lacking something. The blame always falls on the authority figures as they are the ones that we feel should be putting things right. So the traditional way to ‘have a go’ back, and vent frustration is to become a mob and destroy all in your path. On the way you get to loot others possessions which helps to ease the risk of injury or capture. The possessions taken though do not belong to the authorities that the mob is angry with.  The people who have had their buildings, transport or homes destroyed become angry and their anger is directed towards the authority who are struggling to regain peace. What a mess it all is! 

So if the reason for the rioting is a long standing problem, one that has been repeated throughout history, perhaps the solution lies in the same direction. We need to look to the past and see what went wrong, and also how to put it right. Perhaps we need to learn what NOT to do, and then seek new solutions. In my view our way of dealing with the problem of rioting hasn’t changed much over centuries. The reasons for rioting haven’t changed either. If this is so, isn’t it time that something changed? Isn’t it time that we took up the snake of wisdom and meditated on how we can change society at a fundamental level so that lack is dealt with fairly and we see that what is really lacking is love, family, community, responsibility and relationship. Being without TV, phones, games, computers etc is not lack. That is all about want. People these days don’t know the difference. 

How we get from a materialistic culture to a caring culture is not easy to envisage. But somewhere in the shadows of our past the answer may lie. We just need to start looking.

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2 comments:

  1. ma'at is one of the most revered goddesses, she loved justice so much, that she gave her eyes that she might judge all men fairly. today, the lawyers who are supposed to be serving her, know nothing of such, they neither spin nor weave. few still serve 'justice', damned few! They serve gold, and destroy the sacred trees, my family is old, and carries the emblem of the mermaid holding comb and mirror on our coat of arms, not the small emblem put there by byron the usurper, because some few served her faithfully, and gave justice, they were known as 'the fair(e) people, some yet survive.

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  2. ma'at is one of the most revered goddesses, she loved justice so much, that she gave her eyes that she might judge all men fairly. today, the lawyers who are supposed to be serving her, know nothing of such, they neither spin nor weave. few still serve 'justice', damned few! They serve gold, and destroy the sacred trees, my family is old, and carries the emblem of the mermaid holding comb and mirror on our coat of arms, not the small emblem put there by byron the usurper, because some few served her faithfully, and gave justice, they were known as 'the fair(e) people, some yet survive.

    ReplyDelete