When you work with intuition, you run the risk of startling yourself every now and again. It is just part of the territory, and kind of the point....some ideas need to grab our attention.
As I am writing this the TV is on in the background. I just didn't bother to change the channel after the morning news, and they are re-playing the whole news broadcast from 2001.
I picked up the cards for today's post...I had no intention of touching on 9-11, which has been remembered to the point of exploitation over the past decade...but when I cut the deck to shuffle, the Tower card was in my hand. It's hard to believe that is random coincidence. We commemorate the day because it was a watershed moment in history, a profound point of energy that echoes still today.
I remembered my fear that day: home with a baby, a husband working in a downtown high rise, watching the live news from New York ... and the report that another plane was down south of Pittsburgh. The distance was initially mis-reported as being closer than then it actually was. Living in the southern 'burbs, I literally looked out the windows expecting to see a smoke plume somewhere within sight.
That was 11 years ago. The loss may never heal for those who lost loved ones that day. The grip the events still have on people who were not directly affected, except in the abstract, national sense, surprises me sometimes. Violence is a global heartbreak, no matter what country, what day or what motivation causes it. At some point, all the focus on "9-11" starts to feel like wallowing in self-pity, when other places have lost as much.
Which is exactly why commemoration is still needed...the chill from seeing the Tower card in my hand at the same moment of the news re-play was a reminder of that. We still have much to learn from the retrospective. It is a chance to see the facts, see the mistakes, see how the tragedy has been magnified by the further tragedy of ten years of war. The loss of life that day has been multiplied many times over by war - some defensive, some unnecessary, all too long-lasting.
It also lets us see where we are stuck, where fear has become paralyzing and unhealthy, but also where we have courage and where we are strong.
We could just sit here and be freaked by the Tower card turning up like that, or we can go on to shuffle, and see what we need to know NOW, HERE, TODAY.
That is when the Queen of Swords comes along. The meaning of "mystical power" from Diane Morgan's book seems the strongest one. There is mystical power available to each and every one of us...intent, attraction, action...and choice.
We see now how the events of 9-11 and the choices of 2001 have affected us today. Today, we have the ability to choose our path for the next 11 years. We can choose war, pain, fear (as the suite of swords reminds us) ...or we can choose wisdom, courage, cooperative action (as the nature of a queen reminds us).
A queen is a leader, with the feminine touch of intuition and nurturing. Today she is asking us to remember - to understand those in pain and grief, but also to remember the power we have, the magic we hold over the future through the choices we make today.
When I was drawing today's card, the news was playing in the background, naturally saturated in 9-11 remembrance.
I have mixed emotion about the whole topic of 9-11. On one hand, I feel for those specific bereaved families, and would not want to inflict any further upset onto them. I believe the love they shared with the family and friends they lost transcends time. Any act of remembrance is an act of love, from one person to another.
It is appropriate that we all show support for them.
On the other hand, as a total population, the vast majority of us did not lose someone close to us that day. As a percentage of the population, the injuries and casualties of Iraq and Afghanistan has caused more total impact then the events of 9-11. With all due respect, sympathy and compassion to individual tragedy, as a nation, as a whole, we are at a crossroads. We need to get over ourselves. For those of us not directly involved, there is a point where we turn their personal tragedy into a national wallowing in hyper-emotionality and self-pity. That, to my mind, is an insult to their losses and an insult to the memory of those lost. It is time for us, as a whole, to take a new direction or risk stagnation and darkness. It is time for us to honor those people and those events through courage instead of fear, peace instead of war, compassion instead of intolerance.
For some unknown reason, the last post about the Sun card has been popular. Given the historic context of this weekend, I'm not surprised that the Sun came up again today (all pun intended).
The sun is a symbol of LIFE, of LIGHT, of stability...
When 9-11 happened we could have chosen to react differently. Instead we collectively chose to be afraid, to be angry, to go to war, to villify those who protested the wars as 'unpatriotic', to spy on ourselves, to torture. We chose a world of pat downs and misnomered 'patriot' acts. Some even chose to use innocent military funerals as a means of expressing hate. Sure many, many individuals have acted with courage, vision,even selflessness...like the military, first-responders, NYFD, NYPD....heck, New Yorkers in general. But the national sway, in hindsight, was the opposite.
George Lucas was absolutely right when he wrote that fear and anger leads to the dark side.
Now, at the tenth anniversary, we arrive at a new crossroads. Yes, we should remember those lost...but maybe a kind thought for those lost to hatred world-wide might be order too. In my opinion, the best way to honor those lost is to live with compassion and courage.
Not live stupidly...reasonable safegaurds are, well, reasonable. Not live with war, fear and bigotry. Live with a compassion and courage that would make lost loved ones proud and make war-mongers quake. Down that path we might find the stability so craved since that day ten years ago.
Deep in the human brain, there is a cell cluster of special cells called the amygdala. If I'm understanding correctly, it has to do with dealing with emotions, conditioned fear responses...the pavlov's dogs kind of thing.
Perhaps it is time to reach deep within ourselves and reawaken our national amygdala, to learn to get over our fears, get over ourselves, to stop wallowing in self-pity over what happened. It is a time to choose a path of light instead of a path of darkness. It is time to shake of the dust of "ground zero", put aside fear and anger. If we remember and commemorate by way of compassion and courage, then the sun rises again over the world trade center.
