I am one paragraph away from finishing the draft of what (I hope) will be the sixth book in my mystery series. I need to get to that paragraph. I need to be done. And yet I am still crossing off items on my to-do list. I have paid the bills, cooked the supper, written the letters, proofed the blog. Check and check again.
And now this last thing to do. When did tarot become a chore? A task?
Alas, that is not how it's supposed to work. So it is with little surprise that when I finally settle down to get this post written, and I turn over the card, it is the Seven of Swords, the card of sneak thievery.
He has tiptoed into our readings before. What I said about him then still resonates:
Of course, to call him a thief is to presume that the swords he is so stealthily carting away don't belong to him already. Perhaps he is simply reclaiming what was rightfully his in the first place, which makes this a mission of liberation, not larceny. The image is open to interpretation, and that's what you must do this week.If I am to heed my own advice (and surely I should, for what's the point of sharing useless advice?), then I must look this thief in the eye and realize that he works for me. I hired him to steal snippets of time. He picks the locks with his tool of multitasking, but what he doesn't say is that his services cost me more than any purloined bounty he brings.
Contemplate the Larger Enterprise of which you are a part — has something of creative value been taken from you (or vice versa, it must be admitted)? What means justify the ends of getting it back? What steps should you take to correct this imbalance? And what exactly is it that's been (or is being) snatched away?
Today I have double-teamed every moment I have had. Not one has been deep, or singular, or purely experienced. I have charged through every single one, desperate to get to the next item and check it off.
Some days are like this, I know. Best to put one's head down and keep moving forward, stubborn as a bull. One step after another. But today there have been gardenias and rainbows and red wine, and the thief I hired to steal time for me has instead stolen moments from me.
This week...no, not this week. Right now. Put down your creative to-do list and claim instead an hour of non-productive non-work. Don't check off anything. Don't rush through an unpleasant task. Creativity is a gift we give ourselves. Send the thief packing. Let the seconds run through your fingers indolent and lovely. And know that I am taking my own advice, as of right this very second.
It's time to unplug and sit with the lightning.
2 comments:
Lovely post, and yet let me give you another perspective. Because I've been reading again for days on end about fascism, about the triumph of democracy and justice because of a few good men, men who had never thought about being warriors, let alone in a war as violent as that which brought Fascism to Italy, which is what I'm reading about, and when I look at this card I see the little man who outwits the powerful enemy, who runs into camp unseen and disarms the great garrison camped there ready to attack. He may be a thief, but he's a David against a Goliath, one who by stealth and conniving manages nonetheless to hamper and deficit an enemy that is much greater and much more prepared than he. Maybe what this card is saying - maybe what the card is saying to me! - is that no matter how great the project or the task at hand seem, or how daunting the prospects of success, these sneak-attacks of cunning and stealth may yet even the slate a little bit.
Thank you! And I absolutely agree -- this card makes no moral judgment on the morality of the taking in a larger sense. Instead its main theme seems to be cunning, and, like swords, we know that can cut both ways. Here's to the Davids of the world -- one small sword at a time.
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