When I drew the Four of Swords, my first reaction was, “Again with the Swords?” But then I looked closer …

It’s actually an oasis, a place of rest. One that made me think of a long-ago night, when rest was the last thing I was getting. Baby Melissa was sick and there was nothing for it but to hold her. So, I settled onto the couch and turned on a late-night TV show while patting her back. I’ve never forgotten watching The Washington Squares singing Lay Down Your Arms that night …

I bought the cassette soon thereafter, because that’s what we were listening to in the mid- to late-80s. It’s probably still around here somewhere.

Anyway, you’re not gonna believe what the books say  about the Four of Swords …

• 78 Degrees: Fours relate to stabilization … a rest or retreat … people sometimes respond to difficulties by isolating themselves, literally hiding in their houses … withdrawal can lead to healing … holding back until there is a better chance of winning
• Kitchen Table Tarot: sometimes you just have to tell your brain to shut up and be still … have a nap and figure it out later
• The Creative Tarot: keep things stable … maintain sanity … keep working consistently … think of the long-term

Um, yeah. I think I can do that.

So Four … and cactus for Swords. I went through the old blog pictures and easily found two pairs of prickly pear pictures (great alliteration there, don’t you think?).

A prickly pear with four recumbent pads …

A prickly pear with four candles ready to burst into flower …

A prickly pear blossom (or two) …

And a pile of prickly pears gathered around a puddle on the floodplain … like an oasis …

With a little photomanipulation and a slice of book cover, it was done …

May your day be quiet as pooled water on the floodplain.

May you be well …

When I began my Texas Tarot odyssey, I consulted with Deb Lacativa (I give her full credit for all I have gotten right and take full responsibility for all that I haven’t). One of her emails ended with “Aces up!” Now I know why.

Never was I more relieved than yesterday when I drew the Ace of Pentacles …

And because I had originally envisioned Lone Star beer caps as a Pentacle icon during Acey’s Collage Challenge …

that in turn led to the idea of fashioning a tri-color Texas state flag from the book cover stash. It was pure serendipity when I came across the Handbook of Texas Music book cover. But more on that later. First, here’s what I read …

• 78 Degrees: a place sheltered … gives us basic protection … and leads us to recognize the magic in normal things … then go beyond them to greater knowledge … [and] truth
• Kitchen Table Tarot: you have everything you need … earth, air, fire, water, and spirit … this card is abundance, blessings, and luck
• The Creative Tarot: think of the Ace of Pentacles as an anchor … it is the beginning of making something … turning dreams into reality

Perfect. And once again, my original planning played out well as the grasses for Pentacles led me to Yellow Indiangrass for the Ace. I had an awesome picture on the old blog …

which I morphed with some photo editing magic into a proper flagpole. Finding red, white, and blue book covers was a cinch. And because Austin, the live music capital of the world, is a defiant dot of blue in a sea of Texas red, the guitar from the Handbook of Texas Music seemed like the perfect call …

The last thing added was the strip of stitched Indiangrass from here, where the words “how much has changed, how much remains the same” were never truer.

May you be well …

Addendum: for a great view of a Century Plant, head over to the Pomegranate Trail!

A note about process: Some of you may have noticed that the card/collages have edges that are sticking up. There’s a reason for that. Once I paste down the images, I immediately take a picture so I can write about the resulting card/collage while the ideas are still flowing. Then I put the card/collage under weights to settle into its final glued-down state.

Deep breath. Okay.

After yesterday’s post, I felt like I was due for a lighter card. But no. The tarot deck is serving up reality in spades … which is to say, I drew the Ten of Swords.

This is all new to me, but the imagery on this card made it pretty much unnecessary to go to the books for insight …

But I did anyway …

• 78 Degrees: The Ten of Swords fills us with pain … but it does not represent death or even violence … it signifies a reaction to problems … in the distance, black clouds give way to sunshine
• Kitchen Table Tarot: this is just the worst damn card (wait, isn’t that what you said about the Three of Swords?) … change is coming, whether you like it or not … there is some value in recognizing that life just kicked you in the ass and you need a minute … heal and grow stronger and carry on
• The Creative Tarot: the hope of this card is on the horizon … but even if you know that the failure will be redeemed in the end, it feels like absolute hell … come to terms with the failure and then get ready to try again

So, for me it’s about hope for the future. And given that COVID-19 is the greatest worldwide disaster since the 1918 pandemic, it seems fitting that the Century Plant (aka blue agave) would stand in for my Ten of Swords. Agaves can grow for years and years and years until they are practically the size of VW beetle bugs.

And then, one day when the creature knows it is time, it sends up a single monumental stalk that reaches higher than the telephone poles along the road. It looks like nothing so much as massive asparagus spear, and agaves are in fact a member of the same family: Asparagaceae.

At the top of the stalk, a wondrous cloud of blossoms emerges. After which the parent plant, having given its all, then dies …

And isn’t that really our hope? That we will leave it all on the field as we exit the game, whenever that may be?

May that be far in the future for all who come here. May you be well …