November 2006 Archives

I decided to do my daily card draw this morning rather than in the afternoon. Usually I wait until after class, when I'm sitting in the hotel or a starbucks and I can clear my mind. The problem was that I rushed through my morning, shuffling the cards while powering down the computer, packing up my backpack, pulling on my socks, you get the idea. My mind was on the mundane things and not the cards, and they reminded me of that. I initially drew the 5 of Pentacles. Robin describes her version of this card as being "left out in the cold," and that's not a bad description of where I was mentally at this point.

OK, message received. I put down the backpack, finished getting dressed, then sat on the edge of the bed with my cards and slowly shuffled. I usually raise my shields and visualize the block, then I clear my mind and let the cards tell me which one I should draw and turn over. The results were quite different.

That second draw was the Knight of Swords. I feel validated that I needed to re-do the draw because yesterday was the Knight of Wands and I believe in patterns. So, let's look at both of these together.

Knight of Wands...courage, valor, championing a cause...also a journey or change of residence. Since I'm not terribly courageous, I'll go with the journey. Since I'm on the road a lot (currently in New Jersey), this fits better.

Now, let's see if this ties to the Knight of Swords for today. Both Knights are brave young men, full of pride, looking for a fight! The Knight of Wands has his wand extended, ready to joust, or to poke--let's not forget the sexual connotations of a Wand card, f'sure. The Knight of Swords could be leading a cavalry charge, on his winged steed, slashing through the air.

The pattern for me I would say is the invigoration of these two young men. The particular class I'm teaching this week is actually two separate classes, one that runs Monday and Tuesday, then we start entirely different material (and sometimes even different students) on Wednesday through Friday. This means Wednesday is a new start for me, a chance to help others and be "on stage" in front of the class.

Am I aggressive, charging head-long into the class? Full of pride? You bet! In fact, one of the guys in class actually commented on my passion when lecturing, that a lot of instructors just go through the motions. I guess they didn't have the Knight of Swords pushing them. :-)

Ernest Butler is one of my favorite occult authors. He was a Christian occultist, Ceremonial Magician, and contemporary of Dione Fortune. In his book Lords of Light (which is a collection of lectures delivered by Butler, he talks about solitary occult practice:

There is that within you which can give you guidance; there is that inner intuition which can give you the light you seek so long as you're prepared not to jump the gun, so long as you don't try to force your ideas forward, but rely on that inner tradition. You can use a system of meditation and work on it; it enables you to check things for yourself. Or you can take a simple code of ethics and work with that. Try your best to follow that light. If you do this in all sincerity and truth, after a time (it may be a short time; it may take longer) someone or something will come to you. It may be a book you're reading when suddenly a light flashes in your mind and you see the way in front of you. Sometimes it's a person who comes to you and gives you the same instructions. It happened twice in my lifetime. There was a certain point when I needed to go further, and someone came to me and acted as my teacher. That can happen to you. It can happen to anyone because there's none of us favored, none of us with a hot line to heaven. But if we really work in sincerity and truth and have as much patience as a snake has tail, then ultimately you get started. And once you get started, you proceed by putting one foot in front of the other. Just that. There's no elevator to heaven.

The Western Mystery Tradition's focus through most of its history is on "lodges" and "societies," such as the Servants of the Light, the Society of the Inner Light, or Butler's own Ibis Fraternity. Like other esoteric traditions, as more and more is published about the WMT, more and more of us study and follow it on our own. Mr. Butler does an excellent job of expounding on the cliche, "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear." It's more than that--to prepare for the teacher's apperance, the student has to be on the right path.

Intuition is indeed the most important part of that path. We all have a good sense of right and wrong, and we must use that intuition, in conjunction with meditation and study, to keep on the path.