The Wild Unknown Archetype cards, created by Kim Krans, author of The Wild Unknown Tarot allow us to access the imaginal reality of myriad archetypes that we can dialogue with and learn from on a subconscious level. The archetypes are distillations, crystallizations of essential aspects of the Self, places within the imaginal landscape, tools for navigating that landscape and the rites of passage, or deep integrations we experience when spelunking these depths.
For this, my first post after a bit of a hiatus, I chose this deck rather than doing my usual one card “daily pull”. So much has changed since my last writing and I felt it important to dive in deep.
We are standing on the threshold of a paradigm shift. A move into a new reality. This is the place where growth can occur, a place of discomfort and instability, where we meet our "Growth Edge". In the Tarot it is expressed in the minor arcanum by the 5's of each suit and The Tower.
At the time of my last posting, COVID-19 was our big Tower energy. The archetype card I pulled back then was The Destroyer, along with the rune Raido, spiritual journey.
Now, 4+ months into the journey of the illusion of external stability being stripped away (destroyed) and the simultaneous collective grieving and uncertainty it has brought about for the entire human race, we have had a new monumental shift, also in the direction of the collective.
With the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, we have seen an uprising of dissent and a sustained collective move toward justice unlike anything I have experienced in my lifetime.
It is not that murder of black, indigenous, and brown people by police is novel, it is that this time, because of COVID-19, the whole world was watching, and watching from an emotional state of already feeling so much unrest, dis-ease and inner turmoil.
Collectively feeling like we couldn’t breathe.
This is a time when facing the dissolution of binary constructs is on the spiritual agenda. In order to hold space for paradox, we must be willing to sit with discomfort.
And in this instance, part of what is called for in stepping out of the confines of The BOX, is our willingness to look at everything we know (what's inside the box) and everything that we don't (everything outside of it--The Unknown).
We must expand our consciousness to hold the paradoxes both within and without. We must be willing to make mistakes, to say the wrong thing, to be imperfect in the way we show up, to not be expert. We must hold space for our shadow (shame, wound, trauma) even as we move towards the light (love, trust, LOVE).
In death there is a SEED. A new opportunity for growth. With the breaking down of what was, the way is cleared and the ground is made ready for what will be.
Within the humble acorn is contained the mighty oak. Sometimes what is possible seems impossible. This is a time of waking up to potential, both within and without. Tending to what is tender and emergent. We are in a state of emergency. Growth is rarely comfortable. But it is time.
We are shifting from a time of individualism to a new reality of collectivism and we see evidence of this shift everywhere we turn. The illusion of a “meritocracy“ or “pulling oneself up by the bootstraps“ is dying and a new movement that sees the truth of our interconnectedness is being born.
Many voices are crying out together with a PRAYER for justice, equality and freedom to thrive. A prayer to move towards love and out of oppression. The more voices lifted up in song together, the more powerful, the more beautiful, the better to be heard, resounding to the heavens.
Let your every action and your whole being become a prayer, a movement of your spirit towards wholeness, unification and alignment. We cannot truly thrive as individuals when some are still suffering. Liberation means liberation for all. What is within, is without. We are moving away from the binary lie of “either/or” and stepping into the light of “both/and”.
What does it mean to make an offering? What do you have to give and who would be the recipient of your gift? What does it mean to have the capacity to give? What do you fear you might lose in the giving, and what might be gained? Is it about you or something much larger? OR BOTH?
The OFFERING calls us to action. To find our way of being of service. To investigate what we have that could be helpful or useful to give.
When we step outside of the box of the old familiar and embrace the state of becoming, when we move out of fear and the belief in the need to self-protect with walls, when we cease to see ourselves as separate from others, we begin to become more intimate with the seed of our own potential to love.
We begin to see what we can offer to the new growth tendrils, rising up both within us and without.
We all move together towards the light.