Since Chrysalis Tarot was published in 2014, our deck has been lauded by many tarotists for two highly valued hallmarks: spiritual growth and healing. Both contribute significantly to increased self-awareness, an antecedent of higher consciousness and enlightenment (Awakening).
Our previous blog was titled, “Safeguard Your Inner Peace.” However, in order to safeguard inner peace you must first master one or more methods to attain inner peace and then master how to recover it when it wanders off; inner peace isn’t constant, it ebbs and flows and sometimes gets lost. That’s what this blog is about – maturing your center, your home of inner peace, and learning how to quickly regain your center whenever you become perturbed.
Perturbations, even mild occurrences, clearly indicate your spiritual center is off-kilter and that you’ve become emotionally and intellectually out of sorts. You can’t think straight when perturbed, so it’s certainly not a propitious time to make important decisions or behave impulsively. So what is the root cause of spiritual perturbation?
Why, evil spirits, of course!
Well, not really. That’s an archaic expression from yesteryear used to explain what we today call negative energy – both the negative energy we absorb and the negative energy we release. Emotions, both positive and negative, emit energetic vibrations that have specific frequencies. Love is the highest frequency.
If you find yourself in close proximity to a negatively disposed individual, you will immediately sense it and recoil. We’re all familiar with the more common types of low frequency emotion: anger, hate, humiliation, conflict, jealously, envy, spite, self-loathing, etc.
Low frequency negative emotions should be felt and released, not bottled up and stashed away, as our Chrysalis centaur has done. When you retain negative energy, it can do serious harm to body, soul and spirit alike.
Another “evil spirit” is the spirit of unforgiveness. Author Joyce Meyer calls unforgiveness “spiritual filthiness.” Forgiving someone – even yourself – is an act of will: You resolve, sometimes reluctantly, to put an end to the “blame game” and unshackle yourself. The absence of forgiveness is like a a malignancy on the heart of inner peace.
To summon forth the fortitude necessary to forgive requires “grace,” another almost archaic term. The wellspring of grace is often misconceived, as is the pneumatic concept of grace itself.
Grace is the free favor of God and means “unmerited mercy.”
Accordingly, should you require divine grace to forgive someone or yourself, or, say, to stop smoking, stop overeating, stop lying, the list goes on, all you need to do is ask the Divine, however you choose to conceptualize or personify Divine Assistance.
Divine Assistance refers to our cosmic support system. We have unfettered access to it by virtue of our co-creative nature and human responsibilities. Not to toot our own horn, but Chrysalis can help you become aware of your own divinity and co-creative nature.
O Lord, make haste to help us.
In Greek mythology, the Three Graces were daughters of Zeus known collectively as Charites. They were renowned for their beauty, charm and creativity. The Charites are easy to spot in Botticelli’s artwork below. As here in this painting, they are often depicted attending Venus, the goddess of love, who occupies the center of this garden. That’s Mercury, the messenger of the gods, on the far left. He’s looking up and gesturing to something. I thought that rather odd, so I researched it.
Primavera is a complex and controversial painting. I chose it because of its beauty and symbolism, one way the Divine communicates with us and dispenses grace. Yes, contemplating symbolism in art, nature or literature brings grace and inner peace.
Primavera hung in the Uffizi Museum in Florence in close proximity up and to the left of another canvas titled Pallas and the Centaur, also by Botticelli. Pallas is Pallas Athena, the patroness of Athens. This close proximity explains why Mercury is looking up and gesturing in the general direction of Pallas and the Centaur, who is half man and half beast and clearly NOT in a state of grace. Fear not! Athena will shape-shift him back into the fullness of his human nature in no time.
Half-human, half-animal creatures are called therianthropes. They are metaphors for what Carl Jung might term “arrested individuation,” i.e. they ceased to grow spiritually, perhaps because of unpacked baggage, a dearth of sense of self or utter despair resulting from soul loss.
Interpretation: The centaur wandered from his customary hunting grounds in the forest into off-limits territory. He has lost his inner peace and is in desperate need of Grace. Athena, unamused by all beastly (ungodly) behavior, grabs his hair and yanks, it as if to say, “So just ask for it.” This tête-à-tête attracts Mercury’s attention while everyone else in the Primavera tableau continues to merrily allegorize.
When I began composing this blog, I had no intention of writing about Pallas Athene, neither the Greek goddess nor the asteroid discovered in 1802 that bears her name. I didn’t even know about the asteroid. Here’s a snippet by astrologist Rebecca Farrar, who recently wrote about Pallas Athene, the asteroid:
As an unmarried virgin goddess, Athena channeled her life force into her mental capacity and what astrologer Demetra George calls “creative intelligence.” Athena’s symbols of wisdom and war, such as the owl and spear, speak to her complex meaning to the Greeks. Athena demonstrates the ability to think for oneself, as well as the internal balance of active and receptive energies when head and heart combine.
Pallas Athene, pray for us.
© Toney Brooks, OS, 2020
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