But when a friend at church came up with this project, I was intrigued. His idea -- to create a mix based on the Major Arcana of the Tarot -- came without the scary thought of trying to get songs in the right order, the hardest part of making a mix (in my mind anyway). The Tarot has its own order. Ditto on the themes. And not having to worry about all that freed me up to take the first steps toward my very first mix.
Except for the title, which in the end turned out to be the hardest part of all. A friend suggested Tina Whittle and her Ultra-Oracular Extra-Arcane Divination Mix. But it's not oracular, and it's not divinatory. It is mine, however. Kevin called his The Fool's Journey in honor of the first card. So I'm gonna call mine All This and The World As Well, in honor of the last one.
1. The Fool -- "Get Out the Map" by The Indigo Girls
2. The Magician -- "The Man with the Hex" by The Atomic Fireballs
3. The High Priestess -- "West Virginia" by John Linell
4. The Empress -- "Guinnevere" by Crosby, Stills and Nash
5. The Emperor -- "The Queen and the Soldier" by Suzanne Vega
6. The Hierophant -- "John the Revelator" by Depeche Mode
7. The Lovers -- "Breathe" by Maria McKee
8. The Chariot -- "One Way or Another" by Blondie
9. Strength -- "Rain" by Patty Griffin
10. The Hermit -- "Into the Mystic" by The Wallflowers
11. Wheel of Fortune -- "Where I Want To Be" from Chess
12. Justice -- "Cell Block Tango" from Chicago
13. The Hanged Man -- "Big Strong Girl" by Deb Talen
14. Death -- "No One Lives Forever" by Oingo Boingo
15. Temperance -- "Pendulum Swinger" by Indigo Girls
16. The Devil -- "Essence" by Lucinda Williams
17. The Tower -- "A Hard Rain's A-gonna Fall" by Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians
18. The Star -- "Hold On Hope" by Guided by Voices
19. The Moon -- "Brain Damage/ Eclipse" by Pink Floyd
20. The Sun -- "Magnolia Soul" by Ozomatli
21. Judgment -- "Graceland" by Paul Simon
22. The World -- "The Whole Shebang" by Grant Lee Buffalo
1. The Fool -- "Get Out the Map" by The Indigo Girls
"With everything its opposite enough to keep you cryin'/ or keep this old world spinnin' with a twinkle in its eye/ Get out the map, get out the map, and lay your finger anywhere down/ We'll leave the figurin' to those we pass on our way out of town/ Don't drink the water, there seems to be something ailin' everyone/ I'm gonna clear my head, I'm gonna drink that sun."
A card of beginnings, spontaneity, and faith in the face of apparent folly. At card zero, The Fool hangs in the balance, neither beginning nor end. This song addresses paradox -- "the same sun that warms your heart will suck that gutter dry" -- and the movement of time, beginnings in endings, the seed of the ending in the beginning, and the folly -- and necessity -- of faith.
2. The Magician -- "The Man with the Hex" by The Atomic Fireballs
"You remind me of a man (what man?)/ Yeah, the man with the power (what power?)/ Oh, the power of voodoo (who do?)/ Yeah, you do, you do."
I love the drums and horns here, the whole swing rhythm. It's kitschy, of course, but it has the same energy as this card. It gathers to a greatness of sorts, as great as something off the Scooby Doo soundtrack can be. Plus, it shares the wink-wink acknowledgment that this Magician possesses something of the Trickster in him.
3. The High Priestess -- "West Virginia" by John Linell
"Sugar maple's winged seeds/ propellers spinning from the tree/ rhododendron evergreen/ look within and you will see/ there's another deep inside you and inside the other one there is another/ in the other."
There's a Russian nesting doll on my altar, and it's there because of this song, which captures the inward focus of the High Priestess, the potential and the mystery, the spiraling down from the obvious surface to the hidden depths.
4. The Empress -- "Guinnevere" by Crosby, Still, and Nash
"Guinnevere had green eyes/ like yours, m'lady, like yours/ she'd walk down through the garden in the morning after it rained/peacocks wandered aimlessly underneath an orange tree."
I wanted a song that captured the organic bounty of this card, its lavish easy abundance, and this song does it even without the significance of the name Guinnevere, which is a version of Gwenhwyfar, the Welsh Goddess who embodied the natural world, made mortal so that King Arthur could literally unite with the Land. Her name means "White Phantom" and she is often depicted as the Queen of the May . . . which makes her even more appropriate to represent The Empress. With her, "we shall be free."
5. The Emperor -- "The Queen and the Soldier" by Suzanne Vega
"And she never once took the crown from her head."
The Emperor represents order, structure, and authority -- and the price that they exact. I like this song because it shows how the craving for control can hide a startling vulnerability, and because it shows what people will do to protect that vulnerability, even a woman with a face like a child's. Maybe even especially such a woman.
6. The Hierophant -- "John the Revelator" by Depeche Mode
"By claiming God as his only right/ he's stealing a God from the Israelite/ stealing a God from the Muslin too/ There is only one God, through and through."
When religion becomes what the Hierophant forces it to be -- a conformity to a rigid group think -- it betrays the very same Divinity that it seeks to illuminate. God/Goddess/Holy Spirit has the integrity of the whole, not a piece hammered out to certain specifications. To believe in the piece is to commit idolatry.
7. The Lovers -- "Breathe" by Maria McKee
"My heart beats your blood, your breath fills my lungs/ Your heart beats my blood, my breath fills your lungs."
In contrast to the Hierophant, this card is NOT about the group -- it is about as personal as it can get, literally wrapped up in each other, blurring the boundaries between self and other. And the songs ramps up the desperation and fear and ecstasy that often accompany such union.
8. The Chariot -- "One Way or Another" by Blondie
"One way or another/ I'm gonna find you/ I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha."
If there could be road music for driving a chariot, it would be this song, especially if you were driving said chariot on a stalking mission. Talk about taking the reins and exerting one's will. It also has that element of making one's choice into reality, of trying to control two unruly beasts that tends to charge off in different directions. Only in this case, the two options -- one way or another -- are really just the same thing.
9. Strength -- "Rain" by Patty Griffin
"Strange how hard it rains now/ grows in rows of big dark clouds/ but I'm holding on underneath this shroud/ praying."
Sometimes being strong means just holding on, quietly. Laying your head in the jaws of the beast and just willing them not to close on you. Sometimes strength is a powerful gentleness.
10. The Hermit -- "Into the Mystic" by The Wallflowers
"Let your soul and spirit fly."
The Hermit is a card about going inside, but it's also a quest card, a card of searching for whatever it is that is both inside and out. It's about withdrawing from the world, yes, but into something interior that is larger than the exterior (which sounds like a paradox, and I guess it is, but it makes sense -- bigger on the inside than on the outside). This song has that same feeling, of coming home into truth and beauty and love bigger than you thought they could ever be. Magnificently.
11. Wheel of Fortune -- "Where I Want To Be" from Chess
"When the crazy wheel slows down/ where will I be?/ Back where I started."
I fell in love with the musical Chess the second I saw "One Night in Bangkok" on Friday Night Videos. The whole East/West defection plotline seems hopelessly dated now, but the idea that you can step into an identity that carries you ever more swiftly away from who you were, that you can get sucked under that current so easily unless you swim for your life, that at some point your choice of direction dissolves and all you can do is keep from drowning . . . Yes. But. There is always a choice, even when the universe seems to be crunching you in its gears. Sometimes you can't see the choice. Sometimes someone else may have to point it out to you. But there is always a choice even on the wildest ride, even if it's simply the choice to keep your eyes open instead of shutting them tight.
12. Justice -- "Cell Block Tango" from Chicago
"He had it coming/ He had it coming/ He only had himself to blame/If you'd a been there/ if you'd a seen it/ I betcha you would have done the same."
Boy, after hearing this song, I just wanna grab some heartless bastard and kick his ass. Well, not really. In the end, all you really hear behind the anger and sharply faceted bitterness of this song is a complete lack of understanding. Because each murderess had it coming too. And then the cell door slams. They have mistaken vengeance for justice, a substitution this card would never allow. This is a card of cause and effect, as is this song.
13. The Hanged Man -- "Big Strong Girl" by Deb Talen
"Come on, come on, lay it down/ the best laid plans/ come on, come on, lay it down/ are your open hands."
The Hanged Man is all about the Letting Go -- releasing emotions, accepting what is, giving up control and learning this lesson: "don't push so hard against the world." It's upside down and paradoxical that surrendering can be a strength, but this card says believe it.
14. Death -- "No One Lives Forever" by Oingo Boingo
"And I'm very quick, but don't forget/ we've only got so many tricks/ no one lives forever."
Since the Death card is all about transformation and cycles and rhythms, I wanted a happy happy song here, to celebrate the paradox of this card. So "drink a toast and down the cup and drink to bones that turn to dust."
15. Temperance -- "Pendulum Swinger" by Indigo Girls
"Doesn't come by the bullwhip/ It's not persuaded with your hands on your hips/ it's not the company of gunslingers/ the epicenter love is a pendulum swinger."
Okay, this breaks the "only one song per artist" rule, but I break rules for the Girls. This song deserves a shot, especially since it demonstrates the essence of this card -- balance, even in the extremes, especially in the extremes, since extremes are necessary for this card. And it all comes back to center.
16. The Devil -- "Essence" by Lucinda Williams
"Baby, sweet baby, you're my drug."
I think the essence of the Devil and the essence of "Essence" are the same: bondage and helplessness and the lure thereof. It starts off pretty sweet, but then that first plunge hits and you realize the territory you've gotten yourself into now that you've stepped over the boundary. The Devil also represents all that is taboo, the shadow side that must be reintegrated if the self is to be whole, and this song hits that note as well with its waiting and stalking, its "flirt with death," and its search for essence (which can, in the end, never be found anywhere but inside -- that's what the singer doesn't get yet).
17. The Tower -- "A Hard Rain's A-gonna Fall" by Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians
"But I'll know my song well before I start singing."
Even Death isn't as frightening as this card -- lightning and devastation and tumbling into churning surf, dashed on the rocks. You crash into chaos -- down down -- and then, the revelation. That's this song to me -- people starving and people laughing, dead oceans and sad forests, places where none is the number. And then, after, your voice again.
18. The Star -- "Hold On Hope" by Guided by Voices
"Everybody's got a hold on hope/ It's the last thing/ that's holding me."
This card is the hope card to me -- I cannot see it without being inspired. There is a serenity on it, and peace. I don't think this song has peace yet -- there is still a sense of need and despair -- but it has an eye on something higher. In the mud, maybe, but looking at the stars. This isn't a card of solutions, but it is a card of faith, of "reaching out for the hand that we can't see" -- and finding it there.
19. The Moon -- "Brain Damage/ Eclipse" by Pink Floyd
"There's someone in my head, but it's not me."
When I see this card, I feel a kind of dazed delirious feeling, like I'm about to come down from a drug trip of some sort, on the edge of lucidity, the very boundary of it . . . but not quite. And as befits a card that occupies subterranean psychic lands, this piece is a dreamy stupor, half-shadowed, bizarre, fantastic. Mad, utterly mad, yet also utterly sane. Another paradox, but what else would one expect in a place so disorienting that truth masquerades as a hallucination?
20. The Sun -- "Magnolia Soul" by Ozomatli
"We gonna make them saints march on again."
The Sun always comes up after the dark dark night. This song captures that feeling of breakthrough and invigoration, the confidence and optimism of a breaking day.
21. Judgment -- "Graceland" by Paul Simon
"Maybe I'm obliged to defend every love, every end/or maybe there's no obligations now/ maybe I've reason to believe we all will be received in Graceland."
Absolution. That is the nature of this card despite its very heavy-sounding title. It comes with a sense of appraisal, of course, of separating wheat from chaff. But in the end, what gets blown away is the guilt and regret -- we are all found to be enough. Perfect. Cleansed and forgiven. When you hear this call, follow it -- it comes with hope.
22. The World -- "The Whole Shebang" by Grant Lee Buffalo
"We'll take the whole shebang/ all or nothing, anything/ Ecstasy's the birthright of our gang/ we'll take the whole she-bang/ free your heart from guilt and shame/come and claim what's yours, the whole shebang."
Integration, accomplishment, fulfillment. The World delivers, but only if we claim it. To hold the world in our hands, we must give ourselves to it. Another paradox, like all the Tarot, like the way this song shifts from soft twinkling to full on dancehall. Like that. Just like that.
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