Welcome to TaoCraft Short Sip I’m glad you are here.
Today’s card is the four of wands, once again from the Alleyman’s Tarot deck compiled by Seven Dane Asmund, used here with permission. This card was made by Casi Cline.
The interesting thing about this particular card, is its emphasis on the structure in the foreground while the celebrations behind it are smaller and more distant than in the Pamela Smith art or in many other decks.
Very often the four wands are depicted as four posts or poles holding a garland or cloth in a way that is very akin to a Jewish chuppah wedding canopy or the sukkah from the harvest festival. In the recent “One for the Black Sheep” post, we saw this exact card only in reverse. We talked about the four of wands connecting to community celebration. Today a different energy steps forward. This is about liminal spaces, about sacred spaces, about thresholds.
While this card has a sturdier, gazebo sort of feeling to the structure in the front, I like that the front structure is typically presented as something light, temporary and largely symbolic. Sacred space doesn’t have to be Winchester Cathedral. Sacred space can exist, or be created anywhere. To my mind, home altars are far more significant and powerful than large uninhabited stone buildings.
The sacred space depicted on the four of wands is also a liminal space, meaning a place of transition. You don’t need stone walls because you ideally aren’t going to be for a prolonged amount time. Time becomes part of liminal of space. Going back to the home altar – it isn’t a spot you stand in long. It is a transition space and time into and out of connection with your spiritual practice. Time in a liminal space is often short, but important.
Today, the transition seems to be moving toward something very positive. Like a lot of readings over the past two years, I associate this with the global pandemic and the general zeitgeist energy that goes with that. Of course, the local vibe here in the eastern US steps forward the strongest.
Based on the last batch of publicly reported data I’ve seen – hospitalizations, deaths, waste water assessments and the like….I’m cautiously optimistic. I hope there is a celebration when we are fully past this, but I suspect it will be small and tempered. It will be a survivors celebration. Or at least I hope so. I hope everyone appreciates the magnitude of all that has happened and gives due respect to the multitudes who didn’t make it to the other side of the threshold with us.
The bonfire in the artwork very much brings to mind the summer solstice. Summer solstice is very much a social time and an auspicious time for parties. I went to a party once on the day of the solstice and we jumped over a bonfire. It was raining, we were indoors, and the bonfire consisted of a lit candle. But never sell symbolism short.
It was early days in my transition away from my evangelical upbringing. It was thrilling to be doing something so overtly Pagan, but beyond that, the feeling of magic and community was palpable. That tiny little candle delivered on what alternative spirituality was cracked up to be. This was one of the first of many experiences where non-christian spirituality walked its talk. It held up in actual practice in a way I’d not experienced before.
Sure, this is all major projection on my part. It’s almost Easter, my “I quit” anniversary from Christianity. But I also sense a strong transition energy out there that any of us can tap into. What do you want to change? My thoughts go to a social media Tarot reader who was talking about sobriety in a recent podcast. That takes courage – all good vibes to you fellow Tarot person from a rando fan on the internet. But that is the level of transition that is stepping forward here. It has a touch of the Magician card here too. While the Magician often has an element of outward, physical realm transformation and manifestation, today’s card has a feeling of profound inner transformation.
This is more than a beginning. This is next-level, next-phase energy. This is fully stepping into and fully engaging with your personal growth in a serious way. This is the threshold to a new day, a new party, a new bonfire, and the fullness of your light. As we celebrate the of day of longest sun on the solstice, it can be the time to fully show the new you that you have, through this sacred transition space and time, become.
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Sage Words Tarot 