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.
