Six of Air / Swords: Perceiving New Land
On the usual metaphorical level, I often think of the Waite-Smith Six of Swords as representing a movement towards a new state of mind after being subjected to pain. Perhaps we have a friend with us to help us navigate a new path, like the ferryman in the image, someone to support us and encourage us to find new growth.
Six of Swords from the Tarot of Marseille-Waite
In a Nature context, it becomes something a bit more literal, and in turn, curious. It’s not a happy scene, is it? The way the adult and child in the boat are hunched over, draped in cloth. They look defeated, or hunted, to me, although perhaps that is purely my projection. (But what is Tarot for if not to explore our projections?) The ferryman supports, leads them to the other shore, presumably somewhere safer. Hopefully somewhere safer?
For me, this is bringing up the role of movement and change in our relationship to place. In the context of Mind, which is what the element of Air/Swords is often about, it could represent the need for the mind to see new surroundings and locations in order to reboot and refresh its habitual patterns.
What happens to us when we travel to a new place? What does it do for us, especially if were were feeling burned out beforehand? What comes up for me when I reflect on that question is the adult sitting in the boat. How will they feel when arriving at the other shore? Will they magically feel better? The next obvious reflection is that it depends on what is there, where they are actually going. Or does it? If the figure takes their woes to the next place, won’t it just be the same experience as before, just with a different view?
Six of Air from the Sacred She Tarot.
At this point, I am called to share the Six of Air from the gorgeous Sacred She Tarot by Ma Deva Padma. A little bird sits on the edge of a broken tree stump, perhaps where its nest once lived. It has a fresh leaf in its beak, a symbol of a new life. It isn’t moving for a holiday: it needs to create a new home because it has no other choice – the storm has destroyed its old home. Right now, I am not tempted to turn this into a metaphor for human suffering – I want to just be with the amazing resilience of that bird, of Nature’s creatures. Imagine all of those wee birds out there, creating and then recreating new homes from scratch, each time their old home is destroyed. What amazing animals we share this planet with.
But I digress! To appreciate the magic of a new land, our senses need to be open to experiencing it. We need mindful awareness, the ability to feel our bones as they move, to pick up any unique scents, hear the new sounds that the landscape presents. It takes concentration in order to relax, which is an irony that most of us forget. We need dedication to truly look, to experience what is actually here.
I think that is why holidays feel like such important things for us humans. It’s easier to see the Earth when everything around us is brand new. We pay more attention, whereas usually, we forget where we are. Most of us live in someone else’s holiday destination, even if we aren’t aware of it. Someone out there would love to visit your busy city or your quiet village. It would be exciting or exotic for them. But how often are you able to tune into this ‘newcomers’-type perception of home? Perhaps the true holiday that we need, most of the time, is from our own minds. I wonder how the little bird chooses its new home … what calls it to settle in a particular new tree … what senses it tunes into to make its decision.
The image in the Waite-Smith Six of Swords / Air (and cards inspired by that tradition) is more about leaving than arriving. I love seeing new places as much as the next person. Generally speaking though, I prefer to start in an emotionally secure place, and I’m sure that most of us do too. As the old saying goes, ‘wherever you go, you are always there’. (There was a mindfulness book written with that title, but I first heard a version of it in a B-52’s song.)
On the other hand, sometimes travelling to a new space is often the medicine needed for mental struggles. New air against the skin, fresh sights. Perhaps here, we can remember how amazing our world is again, before familiarity gets us used to things and we fall into ourselves once more. To make the most of this, we need to remember that what we experience on an amazing trip is just a different version of what we experience when we are at home. If we long to return there when we get back home, we are missing our lives again, and recreating delusion. It’s the same miraculous world at home as it is on holiday.
And if we are taking a more long-term trip – like the little bird, perhaps moving home – it’s worth remembering that any beauty in the place you move to will eventually become your normality; your mind will always be with you. So let’s concentrate – and do our best to be with what is actually there, and not only life as we perceive it. If all else fails, perhaps we need to move back to the metaphor of the Six of Swords/Air – and move primarily into a new mental space, in order to truly occupy a new land.
That’s all for now, friends. Thank you for being here – and please check out my Therapeutic Tarot Sessions and my courses embracing Tarot and Nature if you’d like us to work together. You can also sign up for the Tarot Blog newsletter (different to my main newsletter) below to receive occasional email updates (roughly monthly) with the latest posts.
Smiles from Scotland,
Stephen
