Myth of Arrival

The Chariot

… control of the Ego over destination … command of spirit over outcome …

In the Rider-Waite deck a sovereign lord is pulled in a chariot by a pair of black and white sphinxes. A mighty city rises up behind them. The sphinx, in mythology, was a creature with the head of a woman, the body of a lion and wings of a griffin. It would ask travelers riddles and then eat them up if the person unable to answer correctly. Taken into context, the chariot could be seen as the question being asked, the sphinxes as the forces at work at the question and the sovereign lord would be the free will of the person asking.

Unlike the cards we've seen before that might represent a more psychological approach for the reader, The Chariot is an aspect of one's external performance, one's own movement and action in life. Western culture teaches that it requires a strong will to keep the chariot focused and steady and on its course. But the card is more than just representing a mighty self-identity. On the lord's shoulders are two hermetic sickle-moons that hearken back to the High Priestess' card. This reminds us that even though we might be focused and forceful in life, we still need help with our guidance. For a resolve without illumination, however strong, creates only aggression in a person. It is our responsibility to avoid that aggression, to follow our path in the best way possible; being open to all instruction, guidance, navigation that comes our way.

***

The Card

Out on a storm-wreaked surface of sea, a phantom ship steers through the very heart of chaos. It is the Flying Dutchman, a spirit ship, unable to come to port or ever land due to the captain's rash decision.

The stories vary as to the source or the origin of the ship and her master but the structure remains the same. Some times it is a pirate named "Dahul (an Arabic name meaning Forgotten One)" (Beck, 392); sometimes it is the cursed Dutchman "Van Diemen" (Shay, 17) or "Vanderdecker (The Cloaked One)" (Beck, 393). Regardless of who the captain is the story is more or less the same. While trying to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, a freewheeling, prideful, self-centered man finds his ship in the middle of a hurricane. For some reason he chooses not to put to shore but press on. Then, for equally unclear reasons the Devil or one member of the Heavenly Host appears on his ship and tells him to make for safety. He laughs at everyone: the Devil, the Host, his own sailors. He announces that his ship will make it around the Cape or be damned in the process. As with such surefire logic he fails to do so and "the old Cape Horners used to see him before storms in the vicinity of Table Bay, and when he appeared they knew that dire things waited in the offing" (ibid.). Since then the myth has entered into our American popular culture¹ as a symbol of fanatical self-importance, hubris, even lunacy in the face of common sense.

***

The Chariot/ The Flying Dutchman in a Reading

We value self-confidence and courage in the West. Our popular culture is ride with tales over the domineering CEO or the cocky middle manager. However, it is a fine line between "cocky" and "egocentric," "domineering" and "tyrannical," "puffed up" and "braggart."

If the Flying Dutchman appears in your reading, ask yourself what part of your personality is pulling you in directions you might not want to go? Is the difficulty you are experiencing not to due with outside forces or is it your own overconfidence in your abilities? Being able to take control of a situation is a good thing many times but in this case does disaster seem inevitable? Some of us have a hard time admitting our errors or even apologizing when we offend others. Why should it be like that? If the Dutchman represents the dark side of a powerful will, what can you do to prevent yourself from ending up in an endless cycle? However, if the card appears reversed, know that your trials can be over come in the end provided you apply a little humility to the predicament. Being able to say, "I am sorry," is the first step, though.

***

note on the sonnet:

[line 6] Venus Amphitrite is a Roman corruption of the Greek goddess, Amphitrite, protector of the ocean, "of the foaming waves, of sea monsters. She is one of those able to calm the stormy seas and winds. Daughter of Nereus and Doris, wife of Poseidon" (Leach, 376). Many times one pantheon in mythology would simply adopt the deities from another, as is this case. There is no evidence in any of the Flying Dutchman legends that the figurehead of the ship was Venus Amphitrite but if I was condemned to ride forever on a stormy tempest that's who I would call upon for help.

The wind's dumb muscles make the water yaw
like so many skyrockets. Just one plea,
they say, mere demure fear and divine law
will save us from tempest muscles fiercely
bolting in the flush-black waves. All this sea
is all I know. Venus Amphitrite stands
at our prow. There is nothing called mercy.
There is nothing called mercy. God demands
this curse until I repent. God commands
all these skyrockets, muscle brine tempests
and salt mercy swirls in the deep wastelands.
Here is the lie of the rain that distrusts
the waves that hates wind that fears this sailor.
Come God. You'll get my penance and my answer.

***

Works Cited

Beck, Horace. Folklore and the Sea. Middletown, Conn.: Published for the Marine Historical Association, Mystic Seaport, by Wesleyan University Press. (1973)

Leach, Marjorie. Guide to the Gods. Edited by Michael Owen Jones, Frances Cattermole-Tally. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. (1992)

Shay, Frank. A Sailor's Treasury. New York, Norton. (1951)

1. The Flying Dutchman makes appearances in all sort of horror movies, TV shows and novels and is also the mascot of Hope College in Holland, Michigan. I just love that. [back]

For a fabulous evening of poetry, join The NuPoet Collective along with the Old Town Poets on Thursday, July 27th, from 7 - 9PM at the Michigan Women's Historical Center (by beautiful Cooley Gardens) at 213 W. Main St. in Lansing. (If you are headed south on Capitol Ave., you will run right into it.)

There will be an open mic for poets and lyricists to perform. Everyone is welcome at this family friendly event. This event is free and open to the public. Please bring a lawn chair or blanket. Of course, out of town poets receive first up on the mic.

Poets are saving the world one word at a time. Poetry in the City at the Michigan Women's Historical Center will be hosted by Ruelaine Stokes of the Old Town Poets & Rina Risper of the NuPoets Collective. Featured poets include Old Town Poets Kate Butler, Zack Chartkoff, Tim Lane, Bob Rentschler, Ruelaine Stokes — plus the fabulous NuPoet Collective.

Make your voice heard. Join us there to either share a word or hear a word. Please invite all that you know. For more information, please call 517 372 8466.

This program is funded in part by Michigan Women's Historical Center, The New Citizens Press, The Lansing Jaycees, Patrick Baker, Dulles Copedge, Gone Wired Cafe and Gregory's Ice and Smoke.

The Lovers

… the friendship of the sea and the earth …

I find the Lovers utterly fascinating, not because of the potential the card could have but the dullness, uniformity, reiteration most decks ascribe to it. There seem to be only two different motifs that are ever used. The first, such as the Rider-Waite deck, has Adam and Eve and some oddly dressed archangel passing blessings over them. The Tree of Life with Tempting Serpent is on Eve's side and a Burning Bush (more like a Flaming Twig) is on Adam's. The androgynous angel, who appears to have been miscast from Godspell, is complete with green and red flames (or are they autumn leaves?) issuing from its head. All and all, depending on how you view the Fall from the Garden of Eden, one can find the ever-present, inherent sexism that is Judea-Christian dogma's attitude towards all women, as well as the tired old belief that sexuality is ultimately sinful and lovers who somehow expound a higher, spiritual rapport to each other (i.e., celibacy before and after marriage) are somehow paragons of virtue over those of us who base our relationships more in carnal flesh.

Then there is the older version of the card that many decks hearken back to. Originally, L'Amour depicts a young man standing between two women. A bloated Renaissance baby, a stand-in for Cupid, aims a bow at the youth. Usually one of the women is young and good looking, perhaps even sensual, while the other is older and thus cranky, unappetizing and dour. Instead of the Fall as a theme, we are faced with The Choice; does one follow convention and choose the grumpy paramour or go the unconventional route and pick pretty girl for once? Freudians, true to form, have apparently written much about the fact that, since both the young man and the older woman have dark hair in many decks, then (logically) she must his mother and so this card represents the Id's development of sexual desire and the Male Ego's need to break free from pushy, overbearing mother-types. Choices, choices, choices. What Freudians do with decks where both women have light colored hair is a mystery.

Perhaps those are two ways of looking at the Lovers, but I sincerely believe are many more ways as well. For example, the title of the card, The Lovers, might be a good place to start since sexuality is, next to food, the basic building blocks of many national and cultural identities. You might want to ask yourself, what is sexuality, exactly? How do you feed your libido? Love, pleasure, passion and desire are complicated issues, and yet we in the West act many times as if they are separate from our daily routines. Indeed, so much of sexuality in the West is devoid of respect, responsibility and soul that it is no surprise many associate erotica with pornography.¹ It has been a long time since I heard anyone ascribe something as simple as humanitarianism, goodwill, friendship to the Lovers. And yet, without friendship, how can there be love?

***

The Card

A young woman sits on the sand by the edge of the ocean. Having cast off his seal skin in order to be with her a naked youth strides through the surf. He is one of the Seal People, a Selkie (Selkie, Selchie, Silkie are all common spellings of the same word); one form of the animal bridegroom in popular mythology, and this girl's paramour.

The Seal People come to us down through the folklore of the Orkney, Faroe, Shetland, in fact all throughout the islands off the coast of North Scotland as well as in parts of Iceland and Scandinavia. Some stories tell of how they are tricksters, but most fall into the mythology of the oceanic animal bride. Sax declares in The Serpent and the Swan that animal brides are usually connected to the ocean and moving water: "Nature becomes embodied in the image of a female animal … intimately associated with the tribe … [and] animal brides are generally associated with water … as the bride variously becomes a mermaid, seal maiden, or a fairy dwelling in a lake … It is present from the early ophidian goddesses of mythology such as Nammu and Tiamet to the little mermaid of Andersen and Disney" (Sax, 202 — 03)

While there are both Seal Men and Seal Women, the Selkie Bride stories all follow a similar theme; a fisherman discovers a woman wandering alone on a beach and steals away her seal skin forcing her to marry him. Whether willing or unwilling, they later have children but one day the woman discovers where her skin is hidden and thus escapes back into the ocean. The Selkie Bridegroom legend differs in that the Seal Men appear to choose to live among humans, rather than being forced.

"The Selkie males are flirtatious and will often marry human women, but they are unreliable and the marriage does not usually last. Children of such a marriage are said to have webbed fingers and toes" (Rose, 287). In the ballad, The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry, the Seal Man declares:

"I'm a man upon the lan,/ And I am a silkie in the sea;/ And when I'm far and far frae from lan,/ My dwelling is in Sul Skerry" (Benwell, 19)

***

The Lovers/ The Selkie and the Paramour in a Reading

If the Lovers embrace you in a reading, ask yourself what does a sexual friendship mean to you? Perhaps one of the least talked about subjects when it comes to love is the concept of divine friendship. That is, a friend is neither purely physical nor purely spiritual, but a combination of the two. The ties between the Seal Man and the young woman are the same. All relationships are burdened with the possibility of ambivalence, fickleness, skepticism of one or both partners, regardless of age or gender. To only focus on the physical nature of a relationship does not forge the deeper spiritual ties that are needed for the long duration. But to see only a friendship in spiritual terms does not create the physical bonds a couple requires as well.

The Selkie and the Paramour are more than a choice between physical pleasure versus higher consciousness, more than easy "pious" behavior versus "sinful" dogma. Perhaps if ask ourself what is preventing us from achieving friendship with our lover then we can move on to bigger questions such as what is personal satisfaction? How do we reach our joie de vivre? How do bring fulfillment to each other? But a word of caution. If the Lovers appear reversed in your reading, it might be because you are focusing too heavily on one aspect or the other. Foolishness over sexuality has caused many a once-stable relationship to dissolve but by the same token celibacy is no reassurance that people might not get bored with a life without pleasure. Do not let your paramour slip back into the ocean.

***

I wish this was easy. A gift! I write so few
letters anymore. I have been thinking.
Take this skin of mine, I give it to you
as a friend, this skin. For my safekeeping.
For your safety. Some day I'll be needing
it but until then, please, pack it away.
And one day, like today, when a pleasing
west breeze arrives and the seals stop their play
and the gray gulls their song — as if they
know I shall return — take my skin and shake
the crumbs out. For even seals and gray
gulls know I'll return. I will not forsake
you, friend. Think of me as the boy who'll lend
you his skin; as your own skin-lending friend.

***

Works Cited

Benwell, Gwen & Arthur Waugh. Sea Enchantress; the tale of the mermaid and her kin. London: Hutchinson. (1961)

Rose, Carol. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: an encyclopedia. New York: Norton. (1998)

Sax. Boria. The Serpent and the Swan: the animal bride in folklore and literature. Blacksburg, Va.: McDonald & Woodward Pub. Co. (1998)

1. And what is your stance on literature or art intended to arouse lust, desire, passion? Like religion, erotica dates back to the dawn of recorded history. In Dutch it is erotische kunst; in French, littrature rotique; in German, erotische Literatur oder Kunst; Italian has simply,erotica; while the Portuguese have, literatura ou arte sobre o amor; the Spanish say, literatura ertica; while the Swedish say, erotisk litteratur. What is it for you? [back]

The Hierophant

… keeper of our sacred knowledge … go-between to the gods …

If the High Priestess was at one time La Papesse, the Female Pope, then the Hierophant is simply the male side of that equation, Le Pape. And as the head of the papal state, he represents our metaphysical discourse, our religious wisdom, our pantheistic teaching, stretching back from the dawn of consciousness to our modern age.

Unlike other cards in the Tarot that are cumbrous with cryptic symbolism, the Hierophant is rather simple. In the Rider Waite deck a red robed person sits on a gray throne. On his head rests a Papal Tiara, the Byzantine crown symbolizing his divine authority.

Two acolytes or disciples flank the priest, evoking the two black and white pillars of esoteric knowledge found on the High Priestess' card. Hermetic keys lay before the Hierophant's feet, not only signifying his wisdom in law and nation but, by curious coincidence, they are also the authoritative emblems of the Vatican City State.

The fact that many in the West mistrust our current religious leaders should not distract from the importance of this card. After all, corruption, depravity and misuse of authority are no more quintessential to religious power than they are to politics. What we should focus on, rather, is that at one time the Pope, like all other world religious leaders, was seen as the custodian of certain orthodox mysteries he used to help govern his people.

***

The Card

A Phoenician priest stands before one of the merchant vessels that helped make his empire one of the greatest maritime trading nations in the known world. Behind the ship are the two great eyes of Melqart, the god of sailors and navigation, staring out at the world.

The worship of the Phoenician god Melqart¹ spread across the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC as far away as the island of Thasos (Rawlinson, 103). His name means "King of the City," (Ribichini, 563) and as such he was ruler of all commerce the empire undertook.

Legend has it that since it was Melqart's desire to seduce the nymph Tyrus that he invented Tyrian wool dyeing from which the Phoenicians were famed for; having observed a dog eating murex sea shells one day. "Immediately the dog's mouth became deeply crimsoned and Tyrus, admiring the beautiful color, announced to Melqart that she would not accept him as her lover until he had provided her with a gown of the same hue." (Edey, 61) The rest, as they say, is history.

As the Phoenicians plied the waters up and down the length of the known world Melqart soon became god of not only travelers and sailors but of their navigators as well. Their priests were not only channels for mysterious knowledge, but being master sea traders of prestigious merchandise, commerce, market goods, they were also required to be the keepers of the sacred art of navigation that helped them steer and protect their vessels. Such knowledge came down directly from Melqart himself.

The Phoenicians for some centuries confined their navigation within the limits of the Mediterranean … But by the time of Solomon they had passed the Pillars of Hercules, and affronted the dangers of the Atlantic. Their frail and small vessels, scarcely bigger than modern fishing-smacks, proceeded southwards along the West African coast … while northwards they coasted along Spain … ventured across the mouth of the English Channel to Cassiterides (Rawlinson, 282) trading with every nation they came upon.

***

The Hierophant/ Priest of Melqart in a Reading

We are all keepers of knowledge, both spiritual and mundane. If the Priest of Melqart comes to you in a reading, ask yourself what do you do with the knowledge you possess? The god Melqart passed on this wisdom of navigation to his people so they could sail the world's waters safely. Where do you get your information? How do you integrate it in your own day to day life?

Since the Phoenicians were merchants and their trade depended upon their ability to navigate it was of utmost importance to keep favor with their god. What keeps you on your goals? Ask yourself, who teaches you the sacred things you know? Are you teaching others in the same way? Many see organized religion as oppressive, but remember that servitude to one's own spiritual task is not an unhealthful activity. It is only when the Priest of Melqart is reversed that we find weakness in our spiritual leaders. Then our Hierophants hoard power, information and wealth for the sake of hoarding and oppressing. If you find you are using your spiritual knowledge to advance your own social gains instead of serving your community as a whole, beware. Empires have crumbled and superpowers wasted away due to their leaders arrogance, hubris, pomposity. Do not act like our current religious leaders, making scapegoats out of certain of their minorities in order to keep their authoritarian sovereignty absolute; only by serving all your citizens can you help promote the survival of your people.

***

I stumbled upon a reference to Phoenicia I would like to share with you, since most of the tribes and nations I quote from in this sonnet are taken from it. In Ezekiel 27 there is a long list of everyone the Phoenicians traded with: Syria, Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Damascus, Judah, Asia Minor, Greece and Cyprus. Rawlinson makes a case that the Phoenicians even traded with the Armenians, "signified by 'the house of Togarmah' (verse 14)" (Rawlinson, 285 - 286, ff.2). While some of the imagery is taken directly form the verse (Lebanon cedar and Bashan oak, for example) other images are pure speculation on my part. I doubt I will ever really know whether the peoples of Lud were jolly or the peoples of Phut morose. What can I say? It made a good a rhyme.

Nothe-nothe-east: the cedars from Lebanon
made our masts. Bashan oaks our oars. Linens
of blue from Egypt were our sails. At dawn
we took the high princes of Greece, heathens
and their clan, for our rowers. Our legions
were loosed upon the waves, south sou'west, our
pilots prayed to Lord Melqart. The Persians
bought our grain. The glad Lud our spice. The dour
Phut our wool dyes. And our pilots prayed, hour
after hour, to you, O Melqart, Sea Lord,
"guide our boats home." The sea will devour
us all. "Guide us. Guide us." Out on the oared
blue, a lull, and then a great hissing fire
arose, filling the pilots with terror.

***

Works Cited

Coulter, Charles Russell and Patricia Turner. Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. (2000)

Edey, Maitland A.The Sea Traders New York: Time-Life Books. (1974)

Rawlinson, George. History of Phoenicia. London, New York: Longmans, Green. (1889)

Ribichini, Sergio. "Melqart." In Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Edited by K. van der Toorn et al., 563-55. 2nd ed. Leiden: Brill. (1999)

1. The various translations of his name differentiate, from Melcart, Melcarth, Melkart, Melkarth and Melquart. The Greeks were apparently fond of this god. "Some writers say the Greeks adopted [Melqart] and … later he became the sea god Palaemon" (Coulter, 316) and others "who identified Baal with Zeus, viewed [Melqart] with Heracles" (Rawlinson, 330) [back]

The Monolators recently played in my old town of Las Vegas at the Divebar. It was part of their West Coast tour promoting their new CD, Our Tears Have Wings. Someone told me that tracks from their last album, Rejection Set Me Free, received radio play on KCRW's Weekend Becomes Eclectic, KXLU, and Indie 103.1. I think everyone should have both CDs.

By the way, this is Eli:

So do it! The CD is only $10 (plus shipping + handling) and really, how many quirky punk bands do you know? Baby Ivan will thank you.