Is my truth ‘Truth’?
Now you might be thinking to yourself “but there are times to be honest with people regardless of whether it is comfortable or not”. That compassion and friendship might demand we tell an uncomfortable Truth to someone. Of course there are.

I think that the first question is to ask yourself what kind of permission you have from this person. Do they tell you the truth; have they asked you to do the same? If you have talked about honesty with this person you could assume that you have more permission to bring up difficult topics. If you haven’t talked about honesty with them you might want to before launching into touchy subjects.

The Tower card speaks to me of the dangers you might find along this road. The Tower card is shown being struck by lightning and collapsing, casting out the people who were inside. It is a volatile and fiery card that speaks of the dangers of pride and the breaking down of the ego.

Now telling others what you think is true about them is always a complicated thing. When I have this urge I like to ask myself ‘to what end?’ Is it to help them? To help me? To vent frustration or what? If I find the motivation behind my desire points back to me I try and sort out what I actually need to say. This is a time to go back to using language that owns my experience and stay away from statements about others, especially ones that point the finger towards their failings.

Still there are times when we see something that another person might not see. The question to think about next is what will they get out of having their illusion removed and with what will I give them to replace it. We all have our crutches that we rely on to allow us to get through our lives. Having them removed by others’ words can create a whole spiral that might as easily take a person into despair as encourage them to grow. A good rule of thumb here is that unless you are sure you can replace their crutch with something better leave it alone.

If you look at Crowley’s Tower card a flaming mouth seems to knock the Tower down with its flames. Our mouths and especially our words can build and inspire as much as they can destroy. Sit with your Tower card and meditate on the times that others have shaken your faith in yourself with their words. For those ready to do some deeper deconstruction you might want to also meditate of what faulty blocks might be built into your tower.

Let me end with my favourite quote on friendship from Norman Douglas. “To find a friend one must close one eye - to keep him, two.”

I thought that Truth and Honesty would be a great subject for my first series of posts on my blog. It is not my intention that this blog become a space to flog merchandise, yet I found myself so inspired by this subject I have also created a powdered incense blend to go with it. This incense is a blend of star anise, lavender and storax. It is a great blend for self-reflection and to aid in speaking your truth into the world.

I have always liked the word Truth. You know with a big old capital T at the front of it. In many ways my path can be summed up as a search for Truth. Not just transitory truths but eternal ones. I have found Truths about myself, my role on earth, about others and about the nature of the universe. These Truths are often more feelings and experiences than they are concrete things I could put into words.

In order to find Truth I think we have to be honest – mostly with ourselves but also with others. Now as you likely know I make my living by telling others the Truth that I see in the cards. What I am talking about here is not about the places in our lives where we might be called on professionally to speak the Truth. I am looking at the much hazier world of daily interpersonal interactions and in the shadowy corners of our own minds and hearts.

Truth in the Tarot comes up in many places. There is the stark Truth of the Justice card, the Truth of Self-Knowledge in the Magician, the Seeking of Truth in the Hermit, and the destructive Truth of the lightning strike in the Tower.

True to self
The Magician is said to have the ability to manifest what he intends by virtue of his self-knowledge. It is by understanding who he is, that he has power in the world. The Truth in the Magician is an inward not an outward one. The Magician uses truth and illusion to accomplish his ends yet never loses his authenticity in the trade.

It is a human condition to seek to be seen by others in a good light. For many people though having their truth be seen is a whole other question. I am often asked if I have people I can’t read and the answer is that some people are harder than others. Generally speaking the people who are hard to read want to be hard to read either due to fear of what might be seen in them or their futures. Face it we all have secrets that we would rather not have brought to the forefront or worse still shown to the world. I think that if all of the niceties and masks in the world were dropped at once chaos would ensue. The lesson in the Magician here is to not fool ourselves while playing slight of hand with the world.

It is fascinating to me to think that the Magician does not care if he is seen correctly but instead that he manifests what he needs. This may seem like dishonesty at first glance but the Magician is not a liar. The challenge for the Magician is that he ends up believing his own hype and loses his connection to his own Truth.

One of the problems that the Magician cannot solve on his own is the danger of losing himself in the material world. In fact the answer to this loss of inner connection can’t be easily found in the world at all. To correct this problem the Magician must withdraw and seek the light or Truth within himself or more to the point become the Hermit for a period of time. This is the defense against the shadows and vagarities of the world of human interaction. Meditate, pray; turn your sight inwards to find your own touchstone of truth.

Pull the Magician and the Hermit from your deck and sit with them asking gently to find your truth as you gaze on them.