2 of swords: In Memoriam

Humans are social creatures. We enjoy feeling like we are part of a group, that we have a connection to something larger than ourselves. That sentiment has been applied to everything from "star children" to religions to a favorite bar. We like it when other people know our name.
The 2 of swords has many meanings, but one of my favorites is "mystical unity" (Morgan, 2003). Most often the sense of this card is individual and internal. In a reading, it often speaks of our individual connection to the cosmic or to the divine. Today the sense of the card is different. It is about the connection amoung groups. There is the connections of one human to many others, the connection to that something larger.  The connotation of this connection is one of universality. The sense if it is of something larger than all of us...something we all can get behind no matter what other ideology may separate us. It is like people of all creeds and walks of life being able to appreciate a good bowl of soup on a cold day: It is basic and transcendent all at the same time.
On of my favorite expressions this idea is when a meeting of like minds is not organized in any way, but rather is a spontaneous experience. That feeling of being a part of something greater is more powerful when it springs from a time of unspoken assent and wordless unison. It is a little like the way everyone cheered at the explosion of the Death Star at the theaters when the remastered Star Wars was released. No one told us to cheer. It was a shared cultural experience with a room full of random strangers who just happen to love the same movie.
I had another experience like that while camping with some college friends. None of us are particularly morning people, but we had to get up early to make it home in time to get to work the next day. The only sound outside of the tiny chime of a digital watch alarm was the morning birds. We all got up, and without a word just did what needed done. The camp was down and we were standing by our cars in half an hour.  Even though we were friends, this was the first time and only the second day camping together for this group. It was a stuporous, coffee-less mind-meld of epic proportions considering the personalities involved.
It felt the same way last night when the first tweet came.
I'm a science geek. I like technology. I like twitter, smart phones, blogs, quantum theory, Carl Sagan and CERN. That is my "other". That is my like-minded peer group as much as tarot, psychics, intuition and spirituality. Maybe more so.
When the news broke last night of Steve Job's passing, you could feel a global moment of respect and silence. The universe gave way, we could sense the dent.
Everyone who was a tiny bit tech minded, especially those of us who remember the days of a blank screen and a blinking C prompt, touched a sort of cosmic ethernet of respect and condolence. In our hearts and our minds - some literally - we raised lighted iphones and ipads and ipods in silent, unified tribute.
In sympathy, and with condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Steve Jobs.


Morgan, Diane. Magical Tarot, Mystical Tao St. Martin's Griffen Publishers, 2003.