Ride the Upside Down

Welcome to TaoCraft Tarot blog and podcast. I’m glad you are here.

Today’s card is the King of Swords, in reverse.

This big, slide prone Alleyman’s Tarot deck seems to like reversals. They feel the same and have the same message energy as reversals with other decks, despite being more frequent. That being said, the reversals with this deck seem to still be significant, despite being more frequent. So far, I haven’t gotten any of those “meh, it’s random, just turn it over and go on moments” like we’ve talked about before when it comes to reversals. This feels like turbulent energy more than an outright blockage.

Swords are air and intellect. Kings are leaders. They are in charge. Put those two together and you get a dispassionate, cool headed energy. In his interpretation of the card for the Alleyman’s Deck, Seven Asmund points out a sense of orderliness about the card.

Some people blame it on our view of Mercury in the sky. Some people blame it on a full moon. Hard data debunks any correlation between moon phase and human behavior, but my days working inpatient psychiatry begs to differ. Whatever the cause or irrational correlation, we are nevertheless left with the reality that life is messy. Things get irrational, chaotic, problematic, and way out of our control sometimes.

To quote the essence of Taoism according to the 1980’s T-shirt about world religions: shh -stuff happens.

I keep getting mental images of a knight in armour or the king of swords on a surfboard. Surfing is an apt analogy for today’s card. You can’t control the ocean. You can line up and order every wave that comes to shore.

If the king of swords in reverse hints at chaos, you can surf the wild changes. Chaos may reign, disorder may abound, everything may be outside of your control, but you are still in perfect control of you and your response to the upside-down-ness of it all. If you can’t control the wave, surf it in to shore. If you can’t turn things right side up, ride the upside down until it turns on its own.

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I need to do a little real life upside down surfing myself, so short sip will return on Friday. Have a great week everyone!