Double Trouble

It's funny that a deck with so many handsome portraits in it has not thrown one up in three days, but all the same, l do find today's scenic card extremely captivating. It is called The Abyss and shows what looks like a city surrounded by water. It seems as though the foreboding and dark building is on the shore front, since there appears to be land on the right of the illustration, but it doesn't stop the waves from giving a real battering to all they can reach. Water can be as rough as it can be gentle, and here, the card predicts a danger which must be taken seriously.

This illustration reminds me of one of those disaster movies from the 70s. Do you remember that spate of those? You know the kind; where the aeroplane runs out of fuel, falls out of the sky, and sinks deep into the ocean. It reminds me of those scenes where the water is spraying in from every corner and crack, and the characters fight to simply keep their heads above the surface. Water fills any space and stops for nobody. This card, named K'an, is covered with darkness and suggests misfortune. Each of the halves of the hexagram relate to water, so really, what we have here is double trouble. Despite the fact that it acts as a warning, I find this card very beautiful.

I wish I had had this card yesterday, because I might have been a bit more careful. In the evening, I bent over quickly to put something in the bin, not seeing a shelf, and cracked my forehead right into it's corner. It produced such a loud thud and my boyfriend swung round on his chair to see what had happened. I just held my head in my hands for a few minutes and bent over on the bed. It hurt so much and then I realised it was bleeding. It is ok today, but I did feel dizzy and a little shaky for some time after I'd done it. I have a red scab on my forehead now.

My thoughts of this card were with me this morning. Since it is the Easter holidays, my friend's son accompanied myself and her on our run. At one point, he wanted to take his bike down a steep and rocky path and thoughts of the abyss filled my mind. We persuaded him to take a different route instead. Everything we did appeared dangerous through the eyes of this card and the small playground we sat in after our jog looked like a potential death-trap.

I am home now, out of harms way and avoiding jutting-out shelves at all costs. When I got in, the postman had already been and an envelope was waiting. It contained the missing card from my Wildwood Tarot. I only called the woman late yesterday afternoon, so that is full marks for the customer service received from Connections publishing. I couldn't bring myself to look through the deck when it was incomplete, but now I have the last piece of the jigsaw in place, I might take myself out into the garden this afternoon and read the accompanying book in the sun. My friend and I saw (and ignored) Oddbod and her sons, Dumb and Dumber, as we left this morning. They were off out, so for once, I can expect some peace and quiet out there.



Illustration from The Dead Moon I-Ching by Luis Rojo