If you have not read the last post “Change is the only constant?”you might want to do so before reading this post.

I’d like to carry on last post’s discussion on the Wheel of Fortune and the Sphinx to talk about the other characters in the card. If you look around the wheel you will also see what looks a monkey and an alligator with a snake’s tail. These two are Hermanubis and Aphophis respectively. Hermanubis is a composite of the Roman Hermes and Egyptian Anubis who amongst a number of other attributes is a diety of procreation and fertility. In this manifestation Hermanubis has the head of a jackal and the body of a monkey. Apophis is the deified force of chaos and darkness with head of an alligator, torso of a man with his lower half being a snake’s tail. In the simplest terms we have two forces, that which creates order and that which destroys it sitting on either side of the wheel of fortune.

I look at these two characters as being the hands of the Sphinx. Picture this - as well as having the body of a lion and the head of a man I am saying the Sphinx has one monkey hand and one alligator hand. The Sphinx uses both of these forces to accomplish its ends. Perhaps a clearer way to look at this idea is in the 2 of disks in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. A spitting image no?

Here we have a jester juggling two disks that are creating an infinity sign. The juggler here is the Magician (see below) who is balancing the interplay of the two disks. These disks are not the only things that the Magician is balancing – he is also balancing the four magical tools within him. He has a wand, a cup, a knife, and a disk each representing one of the four virtues. This inner balance is the same process we discussed as the fifth virtue of going in the last post.

It is this balancing within the Magician of the four virtues and balancing outside in the world the forces of creation and destruction that give him his power. And if you have ever seen a juggler – which by the way is an alternate title for the magician – you will know that is not a static thing. Even more so it is not a destination – it is a continuous process. The juggler maintains the flow by constant investment of energy to correct the orbits of the things being juggled. It is a continual process of going.

We all play with these two forces all the time. We create our lives, our families, our jobs, and our environments through choice and by how we handle the events that pass in and out of our lives. We all deal with the forces of destruction when things fall apart, when we have to let go of people, places and things that no longer work for us. It is all in how we relate to this ongoing interplay of creation and destruction that is important.

One of the real secrets behind the Magician is not how to keep all the balls in the air, but how to use the dual power of creating and letting go in order to maintain balance in yourself and your life. Balance might mean dropping a ball or two and starting over, it might mean taking a break, or it might mean working harder.

Jugglers Spread.
The core question of this spread is – “how to I become the magician?” It’s a good one to try on a regular basis since the kind of changes we are looking for are more like corrections when driving than directions to the grocery store.

First card on the left is the Monkey card - what do we need to create or bring more of into our lives to maintain balance.

Second card is the Gator card – what do we need to let go of in order to maintain balance.

Finally a card for what the balance is. The reality is that balance may look very different at different times in your life. What is balanced at one point in life is not always helpful at another time. If you are really keen on using more cards your could break this position out along the lines of the Sphinx spread.

Endnote
In cleaning my basement after writing this I came across an old sweater from the juggling club I belonged to in Junior High School. The slogan or motto for the club was “I juggle therefore I Am” I have since forgotten the Latin. You have to love the synchronicity of this surfacing at this time. It certainly is the “I am” consciousness that feeds the Magician.

Bah… don’t believe it, movement is the only constant.

We have all heard it before ‘change is the only constant’- it’s a favourite line to pull out at hard times. I have been dealing with plenty of change, as most people are today, yet it seems that it is also true that the more things change the more they stay the same. How can both be true? I have been sitting with a variety of cards that speak to the issues that have been shifting around me. It seems that in many ways the “Tarot” – often translated as “wheel” – is all about change, a perpetual flowing set of symbols that shifts between elements, major and minor arcane, and so much more. Out of all these cards it is the Wheel of Fortune that has been really grabbing me lately.

The question I find myself chewing on around all of this is not how to avoid change, or even free myself from change – but how do I go with it. How to become more, to change faster, to sit at the balance between yesterday and tomorrow in that ever elusive now and play with change, encourage and nurture it so that I can just be. Be what? More of what I am of course. Is that too obtuse?

The most common piece of wisdom that I hear people handing out is that the goal is to be the center of the wheel, immobile and free, or even to get off the wheel - all good and noble ideas for that day when you are enlightened. Until we achieve that lofty goal what can we do with the wheel to move towards being able to be freed?

On the Wheel of Fortune we are shown three characters. At the top is the Sphinx, falling down Apophis, and rising up Hermanubis. Cool. Sometimes these characters change, but what is more important is the position they hold. Rising, falling and cresting or peaking - in simple terms life is just these three things. Things start to grow, manifest or peak, and fall into decay. Our lives are the interplay of many events and people that are at various points of this wheel.

If we look at the Sphinx he seems nonplussed to be in this precarious moment at the top of the wheel. Now it may be that the Sphinx is a master of non-attachment and that leaves him free from worry, but I think if that were the case he’d be hanging out in the center. No, I think the Sphinx holds a different secret that might be more helpful to those of us out here at the edge of the wheel.

The Sphinx is known as the master of the four magickal virtues – to know, to will, to dare, and to keep silent all four of which are united by the fifth – to go. In combination the Sphinx shows us what is needed to stay balanced atop the Wheel of Fortune. We must know ourselves, without that we cannot be sure to make a correct choice. We must will, that is be deliberate and clear within ourselves. We must dare, without action we accomplish nothing and the wheel just spins us around. Lastly, we must be silent. That is we must hold or contain within us that which we create. All four of these ideas combine to create the fifth virtue of going to remind us that it is a dynamic and ongoing process. We cannot stop.

Sphinx Spread
We can do a reading where we lay four cards – one for each of the four – virtues to help us become clearer about what can focus on in this process as we seek to build our lives. Of course this can be used analytically on any area, but for this example I’ll focus on bring something into manifestation so each will be framed as a need.

1. Knowing – what is that clarity that we need
2. Willing – what do we need to co-ordinate ourselves internally towards action
3. Daring - what is the action we need to take.
4. Silence – what do we need to contain what we create

Lastly, we can place one card over this row of 4 to remind us of the going – “what it is that unites these different aspects?” Look at the patterns here too between the 5th card and the rest. This fifth card is the key to understanding the others and at the same time is constituted by them.