Myth of Arrival

1 — Magician

…. humility and skill in the face of the gods …

It is said that the veil between the worlds, that is this world of the organic and material and that world of the otherworldly and spiritual, is thin in certain places and for certain people. These people act as radio transmitters; having the ability to "tune in" to the world of Spirit at certain times, usually through the aide of meditation or prayer (for many, it seems, they are one and the same). These people can act as channels, go-betweens, conduits, leaving their bodies behind to travel to transcendental lands. At other times they can focus their energies to let Spirit work through them for a period of time. These individuals have played intricate roles in their community, being both highly respected and vilified in many cultures around the world. The name they are most commonly referred to as is that of Shaman … except in the Tarot universe, where they are called Magician.

I find it curious that the word "shaman" is understood by both the scientific and religious communities as to be a conduit for the Spirit world, whereas the term "magician" has more similarity in this day and age with over-priced Las Vegas slight of hand tricksters. But we must look beyond that. If the Fool is starting out on his or her journey in a state of Zen-like nothingness, then, in the Rider-Waite deck at least, the Magician possesses the essential tools to continue that journey. They are laid out in front of him on the table, corresponding to both the four suits of the Minor Arcana and the four elements the Tarot works off of. They are the Disks (earth), the Wands (fire), the Cups (water) and the Swords (air). Or, to look at it from a more psychological approach, if the Fool is the embodiment of our youthful curiosity then the Magician is our ego and our struggle with the total surrender of the self we find we must make when confronted with Spirit.

Not everyone can, or indeed, wants do this. It implies not only a belief in Spirit but a willingness to listen to what it has to say. The more we attempt to assert ourselves and our will in these matters the farther we find ourselves shut off from that source of communication. When people talk to me about their inability to believe in Spirit (usually expressed by saying that they have had no first hand experience, have not heard anything), what I think many of them are trying to say is that they are disinclined, unable or unwilling to open themselves up in order to begin to listen. To open ourselves up is to be defenseless, vulnerable, powerless in the face of things bigger than our concept of ourselves and our egos. This is the job of the shaman and the magician.

***
The Card

On a hilltop overlooking a shoreline, a young girl in a long-sleeved white top and red skirt sweeps leaves in front of a Japanese shrine for Umugai-hine, the goddess of clams, low tides and clam diggers. While humble in appearance the girl is actually a sanctisoned shaman, beginning her life-long career in service to Umugai-hine. She is a Miko.

While the world of shamanism is wide and broad and there were many different types to choose from, shamans who deal with the sea and waters are few and far between. To complicate matters, the Magician, as I interpret the card, is a child in the world of spiritual matters. They may have the tools to communicate, but they have just started out on their Hero's Journey into the dark.¹ That is why a Japanese shrine maiden, a Miko, seemed the best choice for this card. A Miko is "[a] virgin who is assigned to the lifelong service of a Japanese deity. These maidens are chosen from specific traditional families. The kamiko ('child of the deity') girls have to assist the Shinto priests with certain rituals." (Knappert, 188)

In Shinto belief, Umugai-hine² is the "Clam Princess" (Ann, 134). Those who work the beaches at low tide to gather clams pray to her for safety and abundance. Behind the girl the temple to the goddess stands, representing the customs and laws her people must obey to insure a good harvest come low tide (Swords) and in her hand she holds a broom (Wands) symbolizing her ability to control the energies around her and use them to her advantage. Umugai-hine herself is represented on a little banner at the gate of the shrine (Cups) tied off with a shimenawa or sacred rope. Behind the Miko lies the beaches her people work at for a livelihood (Disks). When seen altogether, the Miko becomes an intricate part of her community. However, even though she is a conduit to the divine, she must also remain humble; for even shrine maidens need to eat and when she is not taking care of her goddess and her shrine she is down at the beach with her community, digging clams.

Magician/ Miko no Umugai-hine in a Reading

Your skills and self-confidence are needed if the Miko appears in your reading. Put your ego aside not only to allow you to access the world of Spirit but so you can help your community as well, for that is the role of the Magician. You must trust your own creativity and judgment. With all the elements of the Tarot and the world at your disposal, why do you fall back on conceit, bravado, vanity? Vanity is, of course, a form of self-doubt, and since the Miko is master of her craft, there is no need for such dramatics. Humility is your aide and success is measured not in terms of money or power but in how easy you can access your inner world, the world of Spirit. Be like the Miko, disciplined in your training, yet unpretentious in your goals.

If the Magician/ Miko appears reversed in your reading, ask yourself what you are doing to hinder your ability to communicate? Do you feel humility is a form of disgrace? If so, why? The Miko is unified to the higher power she serves. What is preventing you from this unity? What is stopping you from serving your community?

***

Look at that woeful ocean! My Lady
does not like such ghastliness, she adores
the joys of a chambered shell. A carefree
kingdom hidden a foot under the shores'
sand. Her few worshipers are not sailors,
children of sailors, weeping and wailing
for their souls. No, a clam digger implores
only for long, low tides. A good digging
stick and perhaps a deep bucket. Climbing
the hill to this hilltop shrine, they crave. My
Lady likes cravings. It is humbling
yet rapt all at once. So do not ask why
a Clam Princess? A Shore Princess? A Wave
Princess? Is it enough to pray to crave?

***

Works Cited

Ann, Martha and Dorothy Imel. Goddesses in World Mythology. Santa Barbara, CA.: ABC-CLIO. (1993)

Campbell, Joseph. The Way of the Animal Powers. London: Times. (1984)

Knappert, Jan. Pacific Mythology. Hammersmith, London: Diamond Books (1995)

1. Many scholars and readers liken the progression of each card in the deck, one building off the one before it, to Joseph Campbell's concept of the Hero's Journey, discussed in The Way of the Animal Powers. The book deals with the myths of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, focusing on their shamanism and animal totem beliefs. As the child-Hero progresses through each stage of his or her dark Journey, growing, developing, maturing, they finally emerge into the light as full fledged adults. I like that idea; the leap from an emotional quest to a spiritual one is small. [back]
2. I have also found the spelling as Umugaihime, depending on the translation. [back]

0 - The Fool

… at the End, at the Center, at the Beginning, so we begin … again

Traditional Tarot decks picture the Fool as the mystic, the wanderer or traveler, the dreamer inside all of us. A Tarot deck contains, normally, 22 Major Arcana cards and 56 Minor Arcana ones. We begin with number Zero for the Fool because the number zero has represented nothing, void, emptiness for different cultures around the world and it is that state of nothingness that the Fool finds him or herself each time; beginning on a new journey, a new turn in the cycle, a new way of looking at the world.

In the Rider-Waite deck, the Fool is seen as a slapdash, happy youth about to step off a cliff and into an abyss. At his heels a little dog yaps, attempting to warn the youth of the dangers ahead. When I examine the card, the first thing I notice is a sense of joy, happiness, euphoria; the wild abandonment, the carefree humor that infuses the drawing. It's a good day; the sun is shining, the sky is blue, the youth is beginning something new. Here we have unbeaten curiosity at its most basic. The words that come to mind when contemplating the Fool are optimistic, guileless, child-like wonder and a fearless passion. Tradition says the two words carved on Apollo's temple for The Oracle at Delphi, Greece, are: "Know Thyself." This is quest that the Fool sets out to do every time it comes up in a reading.

***

The Card

In this very rough sketch I have chosen Baby Maui taking his first step into the ocean as the Fool for this deck. Waiting for him off shore is his spirit guide, an irresistible shark.

The Great Maui is a Maori myth, though variations have been found throughout the Polynesian Pacific. Every adventure begins with the Fool taking his or her first big step into the unknown. Here we begin with the mythic infant, the embodiment of innocence and curiosity, taking his first steps away from dry land and into the water. As the abyss or void in the Rider-Waite Deck represents the unknown, the puzzling, esoteric, unrevealed part of our unconsciousness that we've yet to discover, here the ocean personifies the same and more. We turn to the ocean for the source of all life on this planet and marvel at its strength. The word oceanic brings forth images of terrible power; waves of such size that nothing can stop them. As Dante's narrator wakes one morning to find, "I had strayed from the path," so the ocean blows us as it wills, far off our chosen journey.

Since the ocean is the beginning and thus a leap for us into the unknown, we see it is formlessness, the unfathomable, in other words, primal chaos. Maui, the Polynesian Ulysses, was born from his mother, Taranga, in such a state of chaos, formless and incomplete:

One day Taranga was walking along the seashore when suddenly Maui was born prematurely, an unformed child. She took some of her hair, wrapped the body in it and put the bundle in the waves. The sea-fairies found the child and cared for him. (Knappert, 185)

Tama-Rangi, "Son of Heaven," discovers Maui and teaches him the songs and tales of his people. However, before he can gain this knowledge Maui must step away from his natal comfort, all the safety and ease he has surrounded himself with and go into the unknown. The ancient Chinese classic, The Tao, says: "the journey of 1,000 miles starts with a single step." The Fool's path of "knowing thyself" begins with the same step.

Once Maui steps into the sacred, physical world, in this case the ocean, he sees his guide, a ghost-shark, waiting for him. We all need guides in one form or another, someone who will help us on our journey. While in the Rider-Waite deck the Fool takes with him a little, yapping dog, symbolizing the ego and our desire to control the forces around us. Here, in whatever this deck will end-up being called, Maui's guide is a protector, a mentor, a teacher, not inner stress, a nuisance, our own exasperation with ourselves. I have never been happy that the dog chases after the Fool, warning him of the danger ahead, so here the spirit-guide waits for Maui to join her so they can travel together.

***

The Fool/ Baby Maui in a Reading

The first thing to know about Tarot is there is no hard and fast signification, definition or meaning for any reading. A question can be asked. The cards drawn from the deck are placed in a spread, that is, laying the cards out in a certain pattern that will help the reader with the question. The answer and the strength of Tarot comes in the reader's ability to interpret, translate, decode the cards as to the question being asked. And since there are a thousand different ways to look at a reading, it all depends on the flavor of the reader.

For example, to take a page from Jungian psychology, The Fool/ Baby Maui, might represents "the archetype of the Divine Child (the myth of the deity sending an infant to enlighten human kind)" (Louis, 46) while the ocean would be our "collective unconsciousness" (Sterling, 10). To complicate all this is the fact that the reader must take into consideration all the other cards' impact where that card is in the spread.

While Maui of The Thousand Names is seen in many cultures as a trickster, here he is a newborn filled with amazement, a risk-taker spellbound at each new thing that he comes upon. The world amazes him, everything is miraculous, wonderful, phenomenal. He knows nothing of the cynical world; for him innocence can never be truly lost since his curiosity keeps it alive. And what better way to explore the world than with two? A friend and guide waits for him to over come his initial hesitation in stepping away from the shore. "The water is safe," the shark sings to him, "adventure awaits us, come!" If Baby Maui shows up in your reading, consider the spontaneous aspects of your life. What is stopping you from being as carefree as you want to be? Joyful excitement is our right, yet how many of us are still fascinated with the world by the time we reach adulthood?

Now, as to the issue of finding Baby Maui reversed in your reading; my opinion of reversed cards is that I read them more or less as the opposite of what the card normally world be. In the case of Maui, our fascination turns into rattlebrained, foolish behavior. We place blind trust in people that could lead to grief; and while it is true life is full of many lessons we have already become jaded to the splendor of the world. We must follow Maui into the ocean to rediscover our long-forgotten childhood awe with life.

***

I love all this sand. Then I saw you, finned,
ghostly, outlined briefly in the whitecaps.
You are better than sand! Songs on the wind
to greet me. I love the wind, too. Perhaps
before I was formed, wrapped in kelp scraps
and tossed to the waves, before I was named
Maui The Last Born, Maui Who Kidnaps
the Sun, Maui Topknot; before I tamed
the sky, you and I went jaunting? Marred, maimed
me? It's a song; I love jaunty songs! You
sang for me! As we started out, you claimed
the waves would not hurt. I love the waves, too.
I love all of me, marred Maui, tadpole.
I love all of you, O shark of my soul.

***

Works Cited

Knappert, Jan. Pacific Mythology. Hammersmith, London: Diamond Books (1995)

Louis, Anthony. Tarot: Plain and Simple. St. Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn (2001)

Sterling, Stephen Walter. Tarot Awareness. St. Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn (2000)

First, I need your help. I am looking for an artist(s) to work with me in creating a new Tarot deck; an ocean-themed one. I normally use the Cosmic Tribe deck but I have been wanting to do this project for years. It is my own skill at drawing and painting that is dubious at best, some might even call it embarrassing, that has stopped me so far. I decided, however, to let the fates help me and throw this out into the void so that someone might read it and be fascinated enough to write back.

Still, I am curious no one has attempted a maritime deck yet. As a Pisces I find it natural to turn to the seas for my inspiration (OK, not "natural," maybe more "obsessive.") My vision for this project would be that each day I sketch out a new, crude (and I mean crude: pocky, loutish, unrefined!) rough draft of each card and post it on my blog. Since there are myths all around the world concerning the seas and the gods that oversee and dwell in them, then this would include a brief introduction to the role each card plays, ways of interpreting the card in a reading and a sonnet to sum up the mood of the myth being used.

I must stress I am an amateur when it comes to Tarot. I think this project is going to a lot of fun and is workable but I am also open to any suggestions, comments, criticisms anyone might have. For example, I do not even have a title for the deck. At first I wanted to call it after the French word for "sea," La Mer: a nautical Tarot. But then I discovered that "La Mer" spells out "lamer," when read quickly and the last thing I want to be is lame or even lamer. Lamer to what, though, I am not sure.

Sonnets, ocean gods, crude drawings; all the makings of a very interesting summer. What do you think? Fascinated yet?

I love sharks. Sadly, there are not that many in Michigan … or so I thought. For Father's Day we drove to Canton's new Ikea store. Ikea, Sweden's answer to Mecca for consumers, "affordable solutions for better living," a Scandinavian Zion. We wandered from one showroom featuring a large, mindbogglingly number of cheap sofas, love-seats, armchairs, rocking chairs to another showroom all for the kitchen onto another for the bathroom, and so on. Each item was labeled in English and Swedish. I was delighted to know that "knife" in Swedish is "snitta." "Grundtal" is a "4-rod towel holder." "Dekad" is "alarm clock."

I ended up wandering through the children's section and brought home with me a "korall haj," a coral-blue shark plush toy. Everyone needs a little more korall haj in their life.